


The one time Bruce isn't a great Detective

by Sophie_Vers



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Robin (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bad Parents Jack and Janet Drake, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Child Neglect, Confrontations, Fix-It of Sorts, God Bless Alfred Pennyworth, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Protective Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake Feels, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Robin, Tim Drake-centric, Touch-Starved, at least he tries his best
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21552472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophie_Vers/pseuds/Sophie_Vers
Summary: When a rather alarming video showing Jack Drake's behavior towards Tim is released to the morning news, Bruce is more than shocked. He knew this particular Robin was a great detective, but a liar? How did the boy manage to hide the truth about his not-so-great parents from Batman and more importantly Alfred for so long? Some confrontations are on the way...On hiatus and in need of a rewrite
Relationships: Jack Drake & Janet Drake & Tim Drake, Jack Drake & Tim Drake, Janet Drake & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Alfred Pennyworth & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Comments: 228
Kudos: 750





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place about two years after Tim becomes Robin, his both parent are alive and doing well, Dick's in Bludhaven. I don't know if this fits the current canon or not, but let's be real, who cares anymore?

It was a rare sight to see Bruce Wayne eating breakfast before noon. Situation like that only occurred when Batman stayed in and not for Brucie to go out to attend a banquet but simply just to catch a break. In other words, hardly ever. But thanks to both Alfred’s insistence and a very tiring Justice League meeting the other day, a true miracle took place and Bruce was awake this day to see the morning news.

He wasn’t exactly watching it, the possibility to have an uninterrupted conversation with his old friend being too precious to miss. So he was mid-sentence when he heard a surname “Drake” and immediately fell silent as both he and Alfred turned to look at the tv.

“- with their son Timothy attended a party hosted by Randall family yesterday. The video we just received an hour ago from an anonymous person shows some alarming behavior of Mr. Drake.”

The live broadcast from studio was cut to demonstrate said clip. The recording was clearly made from phone and for some unholy reason vertically. The scene took place at a parking place, going by the amount of cars in sight, it was overall dark but thanks to the lanterns two men were visible. Bruce immediately recognized Tim and his father. They were clearly arguing, or more like Jack was shouting and waving his hands frantically while Tim stood there with his head down. 

It wasn’t really that much surprising, Jack has always been known for his temper, it had been something that worried Bruce a lot first year with this particular Robin. The neglect on Tim's parents part was evident. It was visible in their bank accounts, plane tickets always only being for two, the ones leading back to Gotham only few and far between. No daytime housekeeper since Tim was 6. But their absence didn't seem to affect the boy so Bruce decided not to take any action. He had parents, not often and not the best ones but Bruce would give everithing to have at least that. He asked Tim a few times if something bad was happening at home but he always denied it, so he only made sure that the boy knew he could come to Bruce with anything.

Suddenly in the recording Jack grabbed Tim by the front of his jacket, forcing him to look up. Then the man proceeded to shake the boy, still shouting at him. Bruce’s blood ran cold and he heard Alfred gasp. Not a minute later Tim was pushed away and both Wayne Manor residents watched as the boy fell on a car, unfortunately hitting his left side of neck on a side-view mirror. An impact like that would leave a decent sized bruise, Bruce noted.

The video ended with Tim clutching his neck in pain as the reporter’s commentary continued. “We were able to interview one of the party attendants, who said they had seen the pair leave early from the party after talking with a foreign businessman. There are still many unanswered questions like ‘Where was Janet Drake at the time?’,’Is she even aware of the way her husband treats their son?’, ‘How long has young Timothy been abused?’, ’Is police going to take interest in this case?’. We’ll keep you updated. And now with sports-” Alfred turned off the tv.

Good, because Bruce needed time to get his thoughts together. Tim had sent him an sms over 5 minutes ago saying that he’s coming over. Meaning that a) Jack and Janet must have gone on another of their trips, because only then Tim can visit them at daytime b) he has no idea that this recording exist and has been published. Also it takes him around 7 minutes to get to the Wayne Manor, so he’ll be here any time now.

“I can see you thinking Master Bruce. What do you plan on doing, if you don't mind me asking?” inquired the butler. Only thanks to spending so many years with him by his side was Bruce able to tell how distressed Alfred really was under the put-together appearance he always has.

“Not letting him get away with “It’s fine” this time, for sure.”

“Most certainly, sir” his sentence was followed by the noise of front doors being opened and footsteps. After shearing a meaningful look Bruce stood up and they both turned to the dining room’s entrance. 

Tim Drake went in smiling “What’s up?” but after receiving no other response than a stare he added “with you guys... Something happened? Is Dick hurt? Why did no one call me?”

Bruce only walked closer to the boy, not answering, to inspect his neck without it really being obvious. He wanted for Tim to know that something’s not right but didn’t mean to reveal he knew what Jack had done to him. The detective part of him was intrigued, he wanted to investigate, make Tim admit to the truth. Especially now that he noticed the perfect job the boy did with covering up the bruise, he’d never see it if he didn’t especially look for it. That alone made him almost sure it couldn’t have been the first time he did it. 

When Tim had any visible injuries, he would always come to the Manor so Alfred could cover it up for him. It made perfect sense for Bruce not to look closely for make-up on person unable to do it, smart move. “Come with me, Tim” he finally said and walked out of the room not checking if the boy was following him, he knew he did. He was the only Robin that always followed his orders after all, at least he thought so.

They ended up in one of the Manor’s most equipped bathrooms. It was clear that Tim was nervous, he stood by the sink next to Bruce but kept looking back at the door where Alfred chose to stay and observe while his son-figure searched the cabinet over the sink. When he pulled out a bottle of makeup remover Tim started to laugh, all the stiffness leaving his body. “What now? Are you going to take off the makeup and reveal your real face or something? Are you in fact an alien? ”the boy gasped ” Or even worse, ugly?”.

Normally Bruce would be fond of Tim’s shenanigans, but seeing how easily his current Robin was able to fool him made him equally terrified and impressed. Tim’s not stupid, he must have seen where this is going but still didn’t drop the act. At age fourteen he was a detective just as much as Bruce and, apparently, even a better liar. If the boy was trying to hide something Bruce didn’t already know about, he certainly would succeed. Which brings another terrifying question Bruce really doesn’t want to know the answer for, just how many things Tim managed to hide from him over last two years of their partnership?

“Tim, I know you have your own reasons to hide things from me and I don’t even expect you to be always one hundred percent honest with me outside of Robin, even if I’d love for it to be that way. But at least I believed that if something really bad happened, you would come to me. I made sure you’d know you can. So I’m asking you now, please Tim, don’t handle this alone, whatever you’re going through and think it’s fine, that you’ll manage, don’t. Ask for help, it’s not a sign of weakness. No one will think less of you if you do.” 

This way of approach seemed to work out, because Tim went silent, clearly trying to see if he was only being manipulated to admitting something the older man didn’t figure out yet. It was and old trick, saying ‘I know what you’ve done’ so the other person would start explaining themselves and unknowingly reveal a secret. After rather a long while Tim finally must have come to conclusion, because he accepted the bottle and used cotton balls to start cleaning his neck. ”What gave me up?” he asked disturbingly calmly.

“Nothing.”

Tim, now sporting a purple bruise covering left side of his neck looked up surprised “So you were bluffing after all, I’m so stupid.”

“No, you’re not, Tim. You’re very clever and even though I know I’m not supposed to, considering what you decided to hide from us, I’m impressed by your skills” he took a deep breath “and I’m sure you already know I have to stop that from happening ever again, so wanna tell me what happened exactly?.”

Tim’s expression was pinched “There is nothing to talk about really, it was my fault.”

This stirred Alfred into action, it was clear from his expression that he could not remain silent even if he tried. “I assure you Master Tim, there is no such thing in the world that could justify purposely hurting one’s own child.”

“No, I really made him do it. I knew he was going to blow up soon but I still kept going… It was my decision that started it.”

“Tim, you- there is so much to unpack here, I don’t even know where to start” the last time Bruce felt so tense was when he had to fight Joker who kidnapped a group of kids from a birthday party, but even then it wasn’t as personal as that. “First of all, how can you possibly, after so many cases of abuse we’ve dealt with, after so many children we rescued, how can you think abuse is victim’s fault?”

“Of course it’s not! Who do you think I-”

“Then why,” Bruce interrupted “why didn’t you save yourself, Tim? You’re Robin for God’s sake, we meet almost on daily basis and you thought it would be for the best to hide an abusive parent from Batman of all people? What is the purpose of Batman if he can’t even help his closest ones?” pain was evident on his face.

"Well, it's not like he ever actually like, punched me. I'd never win a case in court without it happening, pushing and grabbing a little too hard isn't enough, not- not when a Drake surname and tons of money are involved. It would only anger him more if I tried... and he's not really around that often so..." Tim's voice was still calm, but not as confident as it was at the beginning. It was a chance for Bruce, a little push and the boy's mask would break, just a little delicate push...

"I'm goddamn Batman, Tim. If I wanted I would make it happen, but the absolute minimum I need to take action is actually knowing there is a problem at all!" well, that wasn't what he wanted to say, but emotions took over and like a grown up man he was, he let that happen.

Tim lowered his head in shame, so Bruce couldn’t see his face, but when the tiniest “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would affect you this much.” was heard, he knew he had made a big mistake.

“Tim, no, that's not the case, I didn’t mean to-, it’s not how I-" he took a deep breath, rearranging his thoughts. "What you did is bad not because it made me worried, but because you were being hurt and willingly took the effort to lie to us, so no one would notice, so no one would even have a chance to help you. It's not healthy and I'm not even sure if you realize that” Tim remained unmoving in his hunched position and after waiting a few long silent minutes, Bruce shared a pleading glance with Alfred over Tim’s head and Alfred, bless him, decided to take over. 

“That’s enough for now, I believe we have spent enough time in this bathroom already” he put a hand on Tim’s arm. “Do follow me, dear child, I believe the time for hot cocoa is long overdue.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Psst, in chapter 2 Janet makes an appeariance 
> 
> Also I would really appreciate any comments at all, as well as corrections. English is not my first language and I learned it mostly from reading fics on AO3 so I'm writing on pure intuition rather than following the rules, thank you.


	2. Chapter 2

Bruce have spent last fifteen minutes standing outside the living room, where Alfred and Tim were at. He was just around the corner and heavily aware of how he was stalling, but he needed time to make sure he knew beforehand how to react to everything Tim would potentially say. It was different than every other conversation he had with hurt kids before, none of those cases were this personal. His prepared formulas won’t work. Tim has heard all of them times and times before and still decided to keep silent about his own abuse.

The truth was, those fifteen minutes weren’t nearly enough time to prepare for what was about to come. At least Bruce felt so as he finally took a step forward that didn’t end up being aborted like the last several ones. 

“-just don’t get why you make such a big deal out of it” was the first thing Bruce heard Tim say and no, he decided, he was not ready to deal with that at all. But he would probably never be anyway, so here goes nothing. 

As he walked in, he realized two things: 1) the discussion must have been going for some time now, because Alfred’s expression showed only one thing. Hopelessness. Talking some sense into Tim must be as tough as Bruce thought it would be. 2) He’s a damn coward, leaving his old friend like that to deal with yet another of his responsibilities.

Alfred noticed him soon enough and, as they locked eyes, the butler closed his mouth before giving the boy any response. He was clearly ready for Bruce to take over. The butler made his way out of the room slowly, stopping only to whisper “Good luck Master Bruce, please remember to be gentle”. As if he didn’t know that already.

Contrary to his appearance, Tim was very easily offended. But, like just about everything, he did it in his very unique kind of way. For example, when said to get some rest after working for too long and/or too hard, Tim would only add more unsolved cases on his to do list for the night. In the beginning Bruce thought the boy was doing it on purpose only to annoy him. As far as he knew a behavior like that practically shouted ‘I’m a teenager!’. But with time he realized, Tim was nothing like your typical friendly neighborhood teenager.

Every time the boy had been offered help ended with him getting quieter for the night, sometimes even disappointed expression crossed his face, as if he was hurt by the prospect of someone thinking he needed assistance with anything at all. With every suggestion to maybe get some more sleep Tim would go to bed a little later, just enough to be noticeable but not enough to make a big fuss out of it, same thing with food, as if… as if he wanted to prove he’s capable of handling all the bad things preope advised him against doing? But there was nothing he needed to prove, not to Bruce, not to anyone-

“Can we just get this over with?” he would never admit it, but the older man startled a little at the sound of Tim’s voice. He wanted to figure out what was going through the young genius’ head so badly, that he forgot the boy was right before him and could just simply be asked that question instead, not that he expected to get the answers right away.

He finally sat down in the armchair in front of the couch that Tim sat on, seemingly relaxed with his right hand supporting the head. “You know I only ever want the best for you, right?” Bruce started.

“If you want the best for me then drop the issue, it’s the easiest way” the coldness was back in Tim’s voice and Bruce cringed internally, but didn’t let anything show on his face. Hiding his true feelings while trying to make the other person masked under indifference open up made him realize how much of a hypocrite he was being. But it still didn’t stop him from continuing to do so.

“We both know the best way is rarely the easiest one” he took a deep breath. ”I’ll admit it’s not exactly my area of expertise and I don’t want you to think of this as an interrogation, but it’s probably going to look like one regardless of my best intentions. I’ve been told I haven’t exactly been able to hold many healthy conversations involving, uhh feelings and such.”

“I hope you realize that a vision of talking about ‘uhh feelings’ with Batman is even more terrifying than an actual interrogation” Tim did his best impression of Batman’s voice, which turned out quite accurate actually, he must have been practicing. It made Bruce smile just a little, and relax just enough to continue the talk peacefully.

“I just want you to explain the reasoning behind all the decisions you’ve made so far involving your parents. Please, make me understand Tim.”

Said boy sat a little straighter now, his eyes were opened wider. “That’s… not what I’ve been expecting honestly, I don’t have any answers prepared for this scenario...” and didn’t that sound familiar just now?

“Good, because I don’t have a plan either, so this conversation is going to be as honest as it gets.”

“Nice, just the way I like them” Tim always attempted to joke, even in the worst situations. This was familiar enough for both of them that they fell silent after that, but it wasn’t a tense silence like before, this one made them fell almost content, kept a small smiles on their faces. Nearly made them forget why they were here in the first place, but the peacefulness couldn’t last forever, there was still much to talk about, the main problem hasn’t yet been solved.

“Are you ready to answer some questions now?” asked Bruce, as soft as he could.

“I… can’t, I really don’t want to- I’m sorry” Tim looked down again. 

Bruce sighed “It’s fine Tim, no reason to apologize and if it were any other day I would give you all the time you needed to open up, but… you see, someone recorded a video-”

“I know, Alfred already told me.” 

“Oh great, such a relief,” Bruce visibly relaxed and Tim snorted “so you must also be aware that we don’t really have time, we need to make decisions fast and I really do have to know every little thing about your life, especially involving your parents, so when the time comes I’ll be able to fight for your guardianship in the court.” 

All the humor left Tim and he looked at the older man as if he just grew a pair of wings “They won’t take me away from my parents for something as insignificant as that, it can be counted as a bad accident and accidents happen, you know. Besides, why would you say that? You- you can’t really mean you’d want to be my guardian.” The last part was said in the weakest voice Bruce has ever heard him use.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Do you really want me to say that aloud?” he asked with his left brow raised. After receiving no other answer than a blank stare, he answered in harsher tone. “Because why would you? Robin is important, but Tim’s just an unnecessary nuisance. There is no reason you’d need me here at the Manor full time.”

His words made Bruce question everything he believed in. Therefore he took a closer look at the boy. Maybe for the first time he really looked at the person Tim truly was, wondering how in the world he let that situation get so far. What went so horribly wrong that this brilliant young boy he had spent so much time with, laughed with, bled with couldn’t even believe that Bruce genuinely wanted to take care of him? 

He looked at those smart, sharp blue eyes with prominent dark circles underneath, always assessing, picking up pieces of information for his genius brain to put together. Hair, always messy no matter how much gel he used. Hands so thin, even after two years of hard training and finally… his neck. Looking at his heavily bruised neck filled him with a feeling of wrongness, Tim didn’t deserve that, didn’t deserve the pain Jack put him through, but the boy believed he did. How would he make him realize just how important he is?

Finally he pulled himself together enough to answer through the lump in his throat. “Tim, I hoped that all the time we’ve spent together meant something to the both of us, because it meant so much to me. You saved me, Tim, after his- after Jason’s-” he still had hard time thinking about it, even after over two years.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything anymore. It’s just, it’s fine I don’t expect you to care about me, nobody ever does, it’s just how I am, unlovable” he let out a sad sounding laughter “but it’s fine, I got used to it. At least I’m kinda smart because if I wasn’t I would be completely useless, right?” he smiled and it was the one smile that Bruce always assumed was genuine. He was wrong, he was so horribly wrong. 

“Tim, no, please stop thinking that about yourself, whoever made you think that, they’re wrong. I’m so sorry no one showed you how much you’re really worth. The two people that should appreciate you the most, failed you and I never realized just how much you had to struggle with. 

All the signs were just before my eyes, waiting to be put together into an answer and yet I missed, no, not missed. Ignored all of them. You never staying overnight even when Alfred insisted. Choosing big empty house because you could never make yourself believe we really wanted you to stay. Overworking yourself to…” his face scrunched up in thought before a realization came “to somehow earn your place.”

Tim yet again put his head down, so Bruce knew his words were getting to the boy. Unfortunately, this fact did nothing to calm his racing thoughts. The guilt was almost unbearable, but he showed it down. Right now he had to focus on Tim and only Tim.

“Timothy!” a woman’s voice ringed through the room and both men turned to the source of it. Janet Drake stood in the doors with Alfred by her side. The longer Bruce stared at her, the more details he noticed, her cheeks were rosy and her eyes red as if from crying, strands of her hair were sticking out from her not-so-elegant-anymore bun.

As long as he lived, he had never seen Janet showing any signs of distress, this woman was like a damn robot sometimes. But looking at her now made him realize Tim never said anything about her treating him wrongly. Neglect? Yes, definitely yes, but it’s that kind of abuse that someone might even not be aware of causing. Physical abuse is different, it’s always intentional. 

She could have watched the news this morning, just as he did, and discover a horrible truth about her closest family members. Anywhere she was then, it must have taken her some time to get home without Jack, find out Tim’s not there and assume he might be at the Wayne Manor, which she thought her son visited to meet with Dick occasionally. 

So when she started running towards Tim, he didn’t try to stop her. 

The sight of a crying mother desperately clutching her son was something that could get to everyone, so when Alfred sniffed, Bruce didn’t comment on it. He had a hard time keeping his own feelings at bay, especially when Janet started talking in a shaking voice “Why didn’t you tell me Tim? I would take you far away from this bastard if you had only told me! Oh my poor child, I’m so sorry I didn’t notice, I’m so so so sorry...”

As she kept going, Bruce fought with himself to stay in the room. He felt like an intruder, he really shouldn’t just stand here and watch the scene like it was some kind of soap opera. It was a bonding moment between a parent and their child, something he would never get to experience anymore, at least not from a child perspective. When he was just about to turn around and get out of the room, he locked eyes with Tim and the feeling of wrongfulness he had felt earlier came back twice as hard.

He could see in his eyes that the boy was conflicted, he was fighting with something inside his head instead of enjoying the warmth of the only parent that showed any care for him, he didn’t even hug her back, something was wrong, terribly wrong.

“She’s lying.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your comments really make me eager to write, so please continue commenting! 
> 
> I'm also open for any corrections, thank you!


	3. Chapter 3

"She's lying"

Complete silence followed that sentence. Even Janet's frantic cries died as she moved away from the hug to look Tim in the eyes, the only physical contact that remained between the pair were her hands on the boy’s arms.

"What are you talking about, Timothy, my dear child? " her voice perfectly matched her heartbroken expression, but she was clutching the boy's arms just a bit too tight for Bruce to be comfortable with. It could be perceived in many ways, her being shocked and trying to ground herself, her not managing to control her feelings... or the worst scenario, she could be trying to influence Tim into taking back what he said, because it’s true.

“She knows about everything, she’s only pretending to care now so she doesn’t get a bad press later.” Tim kept looking at him intently, completely ignoring his mother’s comments. The only important thing right now was Bruce's reaction to his admission. The boy was testing if he would believe him and stand up against Janet, who seemed honestly terrified by the whole situation. Just before his mother came in, Tim was insisting that he didn’t see the problem, that the only bad things done to him were his own fault. He didn't want to talk about anything and now he's saying the woman is only making a performance while looking so sincere.

It was a big sign of trust. Bruce's next move was crucial and could drastically change their relationship forever. Good thing he didn't doubt the boy's words for a second and even though almost nothing suggested the woman was lying, if Tim said so, she must be. "Please step away from Tim, Ms Drake." 

Tim's relief was evident. It was hard to say what crossed the boy’s face, but a term ‘hopeful confusion’ would be the best description. It was obvious for Bruce that rejection was an option Tim was more prepared for, maybe he was even expecting it. 

The fact that Janet expected the boy to join in on the lie without a second thought was also concerning. Especially since this particular lie would lead Tim to coming back to the people who were hurting him.

There was so much damage done to the boy that Bruce didn’t know where to start fixing. And he didn’t mean physical injuries, but the emotional ones. How to teach a person who only knows the dictionary definition of words ‘care’ and ‘love’ of their true meanings? He can’t stand the thought of how many years the boy has spent suppressing his feelings, convincing himself that he didn’t deserve something because he’s ‘unlovable’ as he said so himself. And it took Bruce, freaking Batman, a recording that caught Jack red handed to realize that not only Tim is being abused, but also struggling with so many insecurities.

But one problem after another, right now the post pressing issue was getting the woman out of here.

Janet still refused to let go of her son, but something changed in her demeanor. She didn’t seem as devastated as before. Despite her overall disarrayed appearance, her gaze has hardened and now was pointed directly at Bruce instead of Tim.

“Excuse me, ‘Brucie’ but who do you think you are to interfere with our business? I don’t remember you being a part of the family, I wouldn’t even call you a friend.” she all but sneered and Bruce realized she abandoned her act completely. Was everyone in Tim’s family a perfect liar?

“Don’t.” All heads whipped to the source of the low voice and they were shocked to find out it was Tim. “Don’t talk to him like that, he’s done more for me in the last week than you in my whole life.”

Unsurprisingly, Janet didn’t seem as happy as Bruce to hear that. While he felt hope blossoming in his heart, she sent her only child the most unimpressed look possible.”Didn’t know you had any relationship with Brucie boy here, that’s something I’ll make sure we talk about. But that’s later, now we’re going back home. And don’t you test my patience, Timothy. We both know it won’t end well for you.” she tightened her grip on his arms for a long second before letting go completely. All the defiance left the boy as fast as it appeared.

Tim’s expression yet again held no emotions, but his hands were shaking where he kept them by his sides.

“We’re going out now.” the woman said before heading for the living room’s entrance and Tim… obediently followed, not looking Bruce nor Alfred in the face.

Bruce’s couldn’t stop the wave of bad thoughts even if he tried. Because when it came down to it, Tim still chose his mother instead of him. Of course he did, that’s how it’s supposed to be. Children should be with their parents and Bruce tried to take that away from Tim. The betrayal still hurt, but it was justified. How stupid he was to believe he would replace boy’s parents...

Before Bruce could get out of his initial shock and hurt, the pair made their way to the door- only to be stopped by Alfred.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you leave The Manor with Master Tim, Mrs. Drake.” Truth be told, Bruce even forgot Alfred was in the room. The butler didn’t say a word since Janet showed up, probably trusting Bruce to solve this problem by himself and now the butler had to block the entrance so the boy he treated like his own grandson wouldn’t leave with one of two people who caused him the most pain. It wasn’t a good moment for second-thoughts, Bruce realized, time for doubting his own decisions would come later as it always does. Now he had a second chance to try and reason with Tim and he wasn’t about to waste it. He could still fix this.

“Out of the way, servant.” Janet said visibly annoyed.

“I’ll have you know, Alfred’s a part of my family and by offending him, you’re offending me. And believe me when I say that, you don’t want me offended, Janet” he didn’t use his Batman voice, he wouldn’t compromise his secret identity like that, but it was a close one.

The most unsettling thing was, Janet just looked at him calmly, totally unimpressed and then shot Tim a look over her shoulder.

The boy immediately noticed that his mother’s attention fixated on him now and looked up. There seemed to be some kind of eye-talk, because shortly after Tim said “It’s fine, Mr. Pennyworth, thank you for your concern, but I would like to go home with my mom now.” He too was a professional vigilante and held the cover story that he didn’t know Alfred well enough to address him by name.

“You heard him, so unless you want any problems, I’d recommend you step away.” Janet kept pushing.

“I’m not afraid of you” Bruce seethed. Then he turned to Tim and his voice softened “Listen Tim, I’ll fight for you with everything I have, because you’re worth so much more than your parents made you think you are. I know you’re scared, there is so much happening so fast, but you’re not alone, not anymore. I should have noticed sooner, I wish I had. But it’s going to get better, because now that I know, I’m not going to let it go. You don’t have to endure-”

“If you think I’m just going to stand here patiently and listen to this nonsense, you’re wrong.” Janet interrupted. “I have no idea why would you want Timothy to stay with you, but it’s not happening. We were wasting money on him for years, he owes us too much now.”

“Is money all you care for? Tim is so much more-”

“I don’t have time for this!” she made a step to the right to bypass Alfred, who was still blocking the door but he mirrored her movements, so she was still unable to walk out.

Bruce frowned upon her but decided taking his chance to continue persuading the boy was more important right now then commenting on the woman’s rude behavior. “Tim, please, give me a chance to save you, we’ll get through this together. Everything is going to be different, but I promise you it’ll be a change for the better.” Finally Tim looked him in the eyes and Bruce immediately regretted saying anything at all. He could see everything in the boy’s eyes. All the confusion, all the pain. Making him choose between his parents and his hero was cruel, but it was necessary. 

So many things came to light in such short time and there were probably dozen more secrets yet to be revealed. There was no chance he would let Tim go with his mother, who’d probably just take him to Jack. Bruce would never forgive himself if that happened. But making the boy stay by force was out of the question as well.

When Tim suddenly moved, Bruce had a miniature heart attack, he was afraid the boy is going to do something bad to himself, but few steps later Bruce found himself being wrapped around the middle by a pair of hands and felt his shirt being held tightly at his back.

Before Bruce could react in any way, Tim took a deep breath, as if to steady himself and whispered “I- I don’t think it’s possible for me to believe you just like that, but I want it to be true so bad... Please don’t- don’t let me come back to them, I don’t think I can bear living like that for much longer.”

The relief Bruce felt was beyond words. “It’s fine Tim, you’re doing great. Thank you for putting your trust in me, I promise I won’t let them hurt you anymore” he finally hugged the boy back and everything felt right again. It was fine, everything was going to be fine.

“Don’t think you’ve won already because you’ve messed with Timothy’s head, Wayne.” Oh right, Janet was still here, he almost forgot. “I wanted to handle this quietly, but I’ll go to court if I have to and kidnapping my son out of his will won’t help your case, I can assure you.”

“You’re so sure Tim’s not going to testify against you.” Bruce talked over the boy’s head, still holding him tightly. He had to bend down a little to hold the smaller boy properly.

“Tim has always been good at carrying out the orders, he’ll be loyal to me again in no time.” Out of many, this one was the most disturbing thing she had said today. Like Tim was supposed to be her robot.

Tim’s hands tightened even more where he was clutching Bruce’s shirt, maybe conversating with her wasn’t the best idea with the boy present in the room, but he couldn’t make himself let go. He was pretty sure this was the first time they hugged. “Alfred, would you mind?”

“Oh of course not Master Bruce, I think this particular guest outstayed their welcome. If you would follow me Mrs Drake”

She glared at everyone in turn and marched off after Alfred. At least she knew when the battle was lost.

“Oh and the last thing!” Bruce shouted when the woman went out to the hall “He hates being called Timothy!”

Several minutes later, Bruce once again repeated the whole conversation in his head. He and Tim weren’t supposed to know each other enough for him to care this much for the boy’s well-being. It was suspicious and he knew Janet had picked up on that. Too many personal issues were addressed, but he couldn’t find it in himself to worry about that now.

He had Tim in his arms and for the first time today, he felt at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's like 3:40am and I have school today, what am I doing with my life
> 
> Anyway, please comment! I've been enjoying interacting with you guys so much


	4. Chapter 4

It didn’t take long for Tim to start fidgeting and even though it was the last thing Bruce wanted, he let go of the boy. They stood in silence for some time with Tim shuffling his feet nervously. Both of them didn’t know where to go from there. 

“Can- can we sit down for a while?” the boy finally asked. 

“Sure, Tim. Whatever you need.” They chose the same seats as earlier this day, with Tim on the couch and Bruce in the armchair in front of him and then proceeded with admiring the room’s decor, which meant more silence. 

Bruce was simply not cut out for this, he thought, he had no idea whatsoever how to provide emotional support. Where was Alfred now, when he needed him the most? Probably waiting somewhere close to let him be the responsible adult he was supposed to be. You’d think that after taking care of two teenage boys he knew at least basics of parenthood.

Tim took a deep breath as if he needed to ground himself and started talking “I can’t help but think I made the wrong decision. I’ve spent all my life trying to prove to my parents that I’m not worthless, that I could be useful and just now I voluntarily chose to throw away all this effort.” Bruce was surprised by the boy’s sudden admission, but then it made perfect sense. After the initial shock of his biggest - at least Bruce hoped it was the biggest – secret being revealed, the boy seemed to come back to his normal personality, which meant he was a) in some aspects more responsible than Bruce b) a detective. 

The intent the boy was looking at him with only confirmed his suspicions. As a detective Tim had the need to gather as many information as he could to come up with the conclusion and after that, a solution of the problem. The the best way to get intel was interrogation, hence his initiative to start a conversation. 

That’s why Bruce went for the most honest and forward answer without sugar-coating anything. “I don’t think I would call distancing yourself from your parents ‘wasting the effort’. I’d say you missed a point where efforts you had to put into being a good son became harmful to you and should be ceased. Since that moment trying so hard to please them was, in fact, a waste of time. 

And just to be sure, none of this is your fault. Your judgment has always been clouded, because growing up you only had your parents opinion to follow.”

Tim let air out of his nose loudly. “Well, not exactly. I always liked to think I mostly raised myself. I mean, I didn’t have a nanny or anything since I was 8 and even before many of them only wanted easy money and didn’t really care about me. No one was there to check on their work anyway, so why bother? As long as I had good grades and didn’t cause any problems, I could just as well didn’t exist at all” his expression turned sour at his last few words.

That was much more information than Bruce expected to get from the boy. “And you never thought there was something wrong with this situation? Never wanted to talk with me, with anybody at all about it?”

“No, I- I still think it’s me, not them. I mean if I were different they wouldn’t have to go as far as going on so many trips abroad just to get away from me, and dad wouldn’t be so angry all the time… I didn’t want you to realize how pitiful I am, so I never told you anything. You’re freaking Batman, and I’m just some kid nobody wants. The- the fact that you allowed someone like me to be Robin… I didn’t want to waste a chance like that. I’ll understand if you want me to stop being your partner from now on.” The boy looked him straight in the eyes, his expression firm.

An all that… no, just no. “Tim, there is so much wrongness in what you just said. You’re important, very important and anybody that willingly decided to distance themselves from you was a fool. You’re so unbelievably smart, calling you a genius barely touches what you really are. I’m impressed by you every single day and when I think I’ve already seen everything you’re capable of you manage to surprise me time and time again. I also know you do work outside of our time together and don’t ever ask credit for it, I don’t even know the full extend of that. 

I’ve never met anybody like you before and I doubt I ever will. I’d never take Robin away from you without a reason and I don’t see any right now. You’re so special and I hope you’ll realize that with time.”

Tim only kept looking at him skeptically. Apparently he had expected a different answer and after not receiving it the boy decided to drop the issue, because he asked “So, what now? We’ll be pursuing my parents through the courts?”

But Bruce wasn’t having it, Tim needed to realize how appreciated he really was. “Just one more thing I need you to hear. You’re hardworking and driven, you’ve improved so much since we met and I keep thinking how many great things you’ll accomplish in the future. Every night when we go out together as Batman and Robin I’m terrified by the prospect of losing you. I don’t want to be the reason a brilliant person like you won’t ever have a chance to grow up to their full potential. 

You’d be a great politician, scientist, you could be anybody you wanted and didn’t have to risk your life like you do now. But at the same time I see how perfect you’re cut out for the vigilante job and how you choosing different profession would be a huge loss for the hero community... So can you please try and see yourself just how I see you?”

Tim had his head turned to the side now. “Looks, like you’ve given this a lot of thought,” he said with what Bruce considered his most casual tone of voice.

If this was an ‘every day’ conversation, he would accept this answer and move on, because nothing seemed to be bothering the boy at first glance. Bruce knew better now. It was obvious for him that nothing from what he just said got to the boy.

Not for the first time today Bruce wondered how authentic Tim Drake he thought he knew actually was. Just how much of his always put together appearance was actual ‘Tim’ and how much a deception? He couldn’t be sure of anything regarding the boy anymore. 

“So, are you going to answer my question? I need to know what to expect” the boy continued ignoring another of Bruce’s honest confessions.

Bruce exhaled. “The topic’s not over, Tim. We’ll be coming back to it until you see the truth.”

“Even if it is your truth, it doesn’t have to be mine.” Tim countered. 

It’ll take a lot of work to change the boy’s mind, Bruce thought solemnly, good thing he wasn’t one to give up easily, especially when it came to people he deeply cared about.

“You chose me over them for a reason, right? You must have known somewhere deep inside that what they’re doing is wrong, you must have had some doubts.” Bruce kept pushing.

“No, I chose you because I’m selfish and staying with you was an easier option.” Tim seemed to grow irritated, good, because anything was better than indifference the boy liked to hide behind.

“And I remember just a few minutes ago you said you can’t live the way you used to anymore. You even asked me not to let you come back to your parents.”

“That- that doesn’t count. I said it in the heat of the moment, it’s not-”

“No, Tim, those were your true feelings. See the facts, your dad physically hurt you and it’s not something that’s supposed to happen in families, ever.” 

“He didn’t mean to, I made him do that. I’m the bad one!” the boy stubbornly insisted.

Bruce stood up, they were getting nowhere and he couldn’t sit calmly anymore. He didn’t expect his abrupt move to scare the boy. Fear could be seen in his eyes and Tim raised his arms up in a protective way. They stayed that way for a while, Tim waiting for a hit that was never to come and Bruce trying to get over the terror he was feeling. It never crossed his mind even for a second that Tim could be scared of him. That thought alone made him feel sick.

The fact that on the streets Tim wasn’t afraid to fight back and right now, when it came to someone important to him he obediently waited for a hit was even worse.

As gentle as he could, Bruce sat down on the couch close to the boy and very slowly and carefully put his hand on one of the boy’s arms. Tim flinched but didn’t move away from the touch.

“Tim, I’m not going to hurt you. Not now, not ever.” Bruce whispered. 

Finally Tim lowered his arms and looked him in the eyes tentatively, but tension didn’t leave his body. Bruce accepted that as a permission to continue. “You said that yesterday was the first time Jack hit you, but your reaction just now says otherwise” he kept his voice low and soft to not scare the boy further. 

“But it’s true, really, he just… he tends to grab me too hard. Not on purpose or anything, it just happens when he’s angry.”

Bruce bit back a sharp retort and only when he was sure he wouldn’t just start insulting Jack out loud, he answered. “It shouldn’t ‘just happen’, Tim. He’s an adult and a father on top of that, he’s supposed to be able to control his actions.” After waiting a while and receiving no answer other than Tim looking to the side again, he sighed and continued. “Can you at least tell me what angered him so much yesterday?”

He could see Tim thinking and was able to pinpoint the exact moment when he made up his mind, because of his expression becoming resigned. “At the party there was this guy my parents wanted to make a deal with. It would be very beneficial for Drake Industries and all, but… you see, the thing is, the guy was William Strato.” 

Suddenly the whole situation became very clear and Bruce could already predict what exactly happened. “Red Dragons’ mafia boss...”

“Yea, exactly. So like, you know, I couldn’t let them work with mafia, but also couldn’t tell them he’s from mafia, because, where would I know that from? So I had to find another way to stop the deal from happening and I improvised. I let some negative information about our company slip out ‘by accident’, commented on his ugly crooked nose, maybe spilled just a few drops of champagne on his shirt, no biggie.”

Bruce snorted. “Nicely done.”

Tim smiled earnestly and it was just like the old times, when everything was fine. Except it wasn’t really, Bruce only thought it was, because he was unaware of what Tim’s had been going through. All of his happy memories with the boy could be difficult ones for Tim, because he had to hide his true feelings. 

Sadly, Tim’s amusement didn’t last long as he looked down and continued. “I saw my parents were getting annoyed with me, I was destroying their best deal after all. But I didn’t stop, I couldn’t.”

“I know, Tim. You did the right thing.” Bruce was fast to reassure the boy.

“Then why don’t I feel right?” Tim looked up again, searching Bruce’s eyes for answers the older man wasn’t sure how to give properly. 

“You will, with time. All you have to do is have an open mind to whatever I’m saying.”

“I- I can try” his voice shook. 

Hope blossomed in Bruce’s heart again. “That’s all I’m asking for.” They sat in silence for a while before Tim spoke again.

“So, about the court?” now that was a question Bruce actually knew how to answer. Planning strategies was his area of expertise after all, so he could relax now.

“Right. It’s been almost a full day already since the video release and police is yet to knock on our doors, so we have to assume Jack has managed to bribe the officers.” Tim nodded, he must have come to this conclusion on his own already. “I think the best approach would be pressuring your parents into giving me custody over you as discreetly as it’s possible with our statuses in Gotham.” Bruce only wished he could expose the boy’s parents so the whole world could see how mistreated he was, but it wouldn’t be the best course of action for Tim. “And if they decide to fight-”

“They won’t.” Tim cut in. 

Bruce was taken aback by the forcefulness in the boy’s voice. “How can you be so sure?” he asked.

“They won’t do anything that’s bad for their reputation, it’s the only thing that’s important to them.”

Bruce had mixed feelings about that. “Okay, that… that’s actually helpful, considering.”

“Yea, it is.” they were met with long silence yet again. “I think I’ll go to bed now, it’s been a tiring day.” Tim said but didn’t make a move to actually leave, so Bruce patiently waited. “Thank you, Bruce, for everything.” Tim forced out and sped out of the room before the older man could answer.

Now that he was left alone, Bruce had time to start overthinking the situation and, as always, he wasn’t going to waste it. 

They were getting somewhere with the boy, it must have been the longest honest conversation they’ve ever had. He’s still not believing Bruce’s words but at least he’s letting out anything about his true feelings. They were many things Bruce could have done differently, maybe then he would get to Tim better. 

No point dwelling on that now... he knew that, but still was going to do so. He could say so many more things about how absolutely incredible Tim really was, but the boy hadn’t believed those few things he did say about him, so that probably wouldn’t work. Explaining how normal functioning families worked would be just straight out insulting for both of them. Completely dropping the issue and letting the boy work his way through it alone wasn’t even an option. It was something that worked with Dick, was necessary with Jason, but wasn’t the best for Tim who apparently had to deal with many things by himself from the very beginning.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and thanks to the sense of peace it brought, he immediately knew it was Alfred’s. He looked up and saw his oldest friend sending him an approving look. 

So Alfred thought he did fine, this alone was more than encouraging. Besides, Tim was safe with them, his parents couldn’t hurt him anymore - at least not physically – and despite everything, he said he’ll try to understand what Bruce tried to explain. He won’t stop trying until the boy starts appreciating himself as he should.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day full of new opportunities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longest chapter so far :)
> 
> Please comment anything at all, it's very encouraging!


	5. Chapter 5

The fact that Bruce had a quite big crisis at home didn’t mean he would miss another day of his night-time work. No, it meant the exact opposite, he would go out for longer and work harder, mainly to blow off some steam and preferably stop worrying too much about what’s about to come in the nearest weeks.

That’s why, when he made it to the cave at 4:20am, he didn’t expect to be met by anyone. He and Alfred made a deal long time ago that his old friend wouldn’t stay longer than 3:00am and Bruce would always, without any excuses, call him if he needed any medical help. It was a way to make the butler have his well-deserved rest and to be fair, he was getting older and older so it had been a necessary change.

Let’s just say this agreement worked only on one part, because as Bruce, after changing into sweats and a simple t-shirt, made his way to a medical kit to tend to himself without waking Alfred up, he was met by the sight of Tim, who was fast asleep on the chair in front of the Batcomputer with his head to the side and legs up on the chair.

The boy must have chosen the same way to take off his thoughts of the main issue in his life right now, which meant simply concentrating on work. Bruce really hoped he wasn’t the one who the boy learned that from. He could only guess he’s always been like that because he’s a workaholic, much like Bruce himself.

Those are only bruises, he decided as he made his way to the computers instead of going for the kit, but before waking Tim up to send him upstairs, Bruce’s curiosity got the better of him and he took a look at multiple monitors and started reading.

Every screen displayed various casefiles with their own respective notepads full of lines. There were many different cases, not all of them Bruce remembered ever seeing and there were only two things that seemed to connect them. All were old and, most importantly, unsolved. 

The next thing Bruce noticed was how the notes had similar times of update, some of them were separated by only few minutes as if Tim worked on all these cases simultaneously. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and sighed deeply. Of course the boy could do something like that and of course he’d never think to speak with Bruce about it, he probably thought it wasn’t anything big. 

As silently as he could, the older man bent over Tim to grab a mouse and check if he could find anything even more interesting. As he started clicking through different files, he realized none of them were present on the Batcomputer, at least not in this form and arrangement. Somehow Tim must have forwarded the data from his personal computer, most likely today.

When he reached the end of the files he was surprised to find a folder named ‘Done & Sent’. It consisted of over 50 documents from which Bruce this time recognized every single one. Honestly he should have made this connection as soon as he saw Tim was working on unsolved cases, but to be fair, it was a hard day for the Detective. Those were the files GCPD kept getting for months from an anonymous person who called themselves ’RR’.

Bruce wanted to strangle the boy just as much as he wanted to hug him. He was fully aware that this precious boy did some work alone, without ever mentioning it, but the older man never knew the full extend of it. 

Tim must have been really exhausted by the whole situation with his parents if he let another secret of his be exposed so soon after the last one. But it could also be a good sign, maybe Tim started to let his guard down around him and Alfred. Bruce chose to believe in the latter. 

He laid a hand on Tim’s arm and didn’t even have to shake it to wake the boy up. He straightened, moving sluggishly and looked around blearily. When he was met with Bruce’s amused face, his pupils dilated in shock and recognition. His eyes darted to the screens and his breath quickened.

The boy’s obvious panic reaction hit him like a bucket of cold water. “Shh, chum. It’s okay, look at me- hey, Tim look at me.” Tim finally snapped out of it and focused on the older man.

“Tell me what’s wrong. Please, make me understand.” he searched the boy’s eyes for answers. “Just like at debriefing, focus on the facts and talk, Tim.” Bruce hoped that the similarity of this process would help him relax and open up more.

Tim inhaled loudly. “I didn’t want you to find out about that” he said in a hushed voice.

“Why?”

He took several more irregular breaths. “If I heard you saying” he started slowly ”how pathetic and unnecessary my work is, I- I know I wouldn’t take it well… and that’s putting it mildly.” He still didn’t take his eyes off of the other man.

Bruce’s heart ached for the boy. He never imagined a person could be so insecure, especially someone like Tim, who he knew for a fact could be so brave under many difficult circumstances. 

“Is that what your parent have been doing? Discrediting your work?” he asked sadly.

“No, they- they didn’t, they…” Tim fell silent for a while, but this time Bruce was going to wait. At least his breathing was more or less stable now ”I’m not sure how to defend them anymore” the boy finally said with resignation.

“Good, Tim, that’s good, because there are no excuses for what they’ve been doing to you for all these years.”

“You make them look like monsters, you know” the boy accused him.

“I’m really not trying to, it’s just really hard to say anything positive about them.”

Tim scoffed and stood up, apparently he was still protective of his parents, which wasn’t really that surprising. He looked at the other man defiantly, pointed a finger at him and opened his mouth only to close them and falter completely after a second. “You’re right, they suck, but is it wrong that I still love them? That all I always wanted was to make them proud of me?” he started tearing up now.

“No, no, no, of course it’s not” After so many times reminding himself to be careful when interacting with him, this time he hugged the boy without thinking. 

Bruce had a lot of time to think about a course of action he’s going to take with him. Because of his lonely upbringing there was a big possibility Tim was touch-starved and wouldn’t react well to sudden physical contact, that’s why Bruce decided he’ll be extremely careful and won’t initiate any physical contact without being one hundred percent sure that was be what Tim wanted and/or needed. He didn’t want to make him fell uncomfortable or like he was being attacked.

He also realized how little he touched the boy over last two years. Sure, when training they kept exchanging hits, kicks and such, but he wouldn’t count that in, for obvious reasons. There was nothing positive or reassuring in those. A simple pat on the back would be enough, but he was to scared to get too close to the boy after how broken he was from losing Jason. He hurt yet another boy he was supposed to take care of.

He was so sure he must have made a mistake by hugging the boy, that he didn’t even realize when Tim started hugging him back. Bruce felt his heart melt, he was so happy.

Unfortunately, his joy was short-lived. Tim was straight up crying now, but as everything he did, it wasn’t what the older man would expect. He cried without making a sound. 

The only reason Bruce knew it was happening was because of two wet spots he could feel growing on his t-shirt. The boy wasn’t even shaking and Bruce found it terrifying. After dealing with two especially emotional kids for several years, he’d expect about everything to follow the tears. Anger, screams, hits, broken furniture, even handstands. Literally everything but silence.

“Your parents aren’t that kind of people who could ever be pleased. And it’s not your fault. I mean, look at you, you’re incredible. You do the work hardly anyone can, and fewer decide to do and you’re so great at it. I’m not only talking about Robin. Those cases you solved behind my back… I’m sure you made a bunch of people happy, relieved. I didn’t even thought of taking care of those, especially given that they’re old enough for most of the evidence to be long gone. You’ll have to tell me everything about how you solved those. You know I’m not easily impressed but this… this is spectacular job, great done.”

He didn’t mention the fact that it’s another thing Tim managed to hide from him for so long. They even talked face to face about the mysterious RR, shared some ideas about who that might be and he let out literally nothing. Yet again Bruce felt equally impressed and terrified by the extend of his lying skills.

He kept soothing the boy by slowly petting his hair and shushing. “I know it won’t be easy to let go of your parents, but you’re not alone. Me, Alfred, Dick, Barbara, we all love and care about you. If you let us, we’ll be your family… like you already are part of ours.”

Very carefully Bruce pulled away from the boy just enough to guide Tim’s head up to meet his eyes. He could see how conflicted he was. “It’s fine, no pressure. You’ll give me the answer when you’re ready, but I have to insist you believe me when I say how absolutely amazing you are.”

He nodded and sniffed for the first time before moving away completely and frantically wiping his wet eyes. He let out a small, sad sounding laugh “Gosh, I’m so pathetic.”

“There is nothing pathetic in crying, having doubts. Let yourself have them. It’s all human, we all have moments like that.” Bruce reassured.

“Even Batman?”

“Even Batman.” He looked at the boy fondly. “And you know that more than anybody, you’ve seen me at my worst, Tim. You’ve seen me lose myself and came to my rescue. I can’t even imagine what would happen if you didn’t join me when you did.”

“Now you’re exaggerating” Tim said incredulously.

“Yes, that’s what I’m known for, chum, paying people unnecessary complements.” Bruce commented and Tim snorted loudly. 

The older man looked at the time on the Batcomputer. It was nearing 5am now. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not getting any sleep today for sure.” Guilt crossed the boy’s face, so Bruce was fast to add “I’m in a mood for a movie night. Well, more like morning, but that’s not important. It’s Sunday so we can sleep it off later. What do you say?”

Tim still looked unconvinced, but eventually nodded. Bruce wanted to slap himself, he made the boy feel guilty over something that wasn’t his fault in the slightest. Of course all those different, sometimes conflicting feelings from the last day would influence both of them. Most of the night he felt tired and Tim must have as well, given how he fell asleep in the cave. But now after another emotional trip, there was no chance he’s falling asleep soon.

Just when Bruce was about to suggest going upstairs, he felt his phone vibrate in his sweats pocket. “Go first and choose a movie, I’ll join you in a second” he said.

“Sure” Tim gave him a suspicious look as if he expected Bruce to do something shady the second he left him alone but still made his way to the stairs.

Only when the boy was out of the hearing range Bruce took out the phone to find out that the caller was not who he expected him to be. That meant no insulting Jack in the nearest few minutes, which was a shame.

On the other hand 5am isn’t really a time he should be expecting a call from a normal, daytime functioning person. 

Finally, Bruce chose an option to take the call and brought the phone to his ear, ready to be met with an outburst. 

“Just how long were you going to wait before informing me Tim was being abused?!” He wasn’t wrong. Dick’s loud voice almost destroyed his eardrums.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to @Rebooting_It_All and @maychorian, who mentioned Dick in the last chapter's comments! You summoned him ;)
> 
> Comment please, I'm updating this fast only because of how motivating talking with you guys is <3


	6. Chapter 6

It’s been over twenty minutes since Bruce had sent him upstairs and Tim was only getting more and more nervous with every passing minute.

He already did everything he could have done in this time. He had chosen a movie, turned on the tv, went to get some blankets from another room (as silently as he could not to wake Alfred up), then proceeded to pace for a while, checked his phone for the umpteenth time and ignored all those unread messages from Ives and some other classmates who never really cared about him and vice versa. Most likely they were only attracted by the sensation and wanted to get the info firsthand.

But the most important thing, there weren’t any missed calls nor massages from dad.

Somewhere deep inside he still believed that everything would turn out to be okay. Dad would call him and promise he’ll fix this, that he’ll be better from now on so they could be family again. Or for the first time, if Tim were to be honest with himself.

At least his father must have dealt with any charges that were potentially to be put against him. Or maybe it was his mother? At least it’s good to know none of them wanted to make a big fuss out of this whole situation. The press will be having many field days soon anyway, but without an official indictment, it won’t last as long as it could. Good thing no one realized he’s staying at the Wayne Manor yet.

He sighed and made himself more comfortable in the armchair he was currently occupying. There was also a sofa, but he chose the former, because it was more secluded. Just the way he liked his seats.

Just as he started considering watching the movie alone, Bruce walked in.

“I see everything is ready” he said cheerfully. It was still so weird to see him like that. The fact that he had such an insight in Batman’s life… six year old him would piss his pants, literally. And now his everyday life consisted of seeing not only Batman, not Brucie Wayne, but just Bruce. How crazy life could be, huh?

Instead of verbalizing those feelings of pride, admiration and honor, he shoved down all of them. Thinking about something like that was pointless and a waste of time, Tim knew Bruce was a human just like him and glorifying anyone like that was just childish.

He sent the older man a suspicious look, but wasn’t really expecting any explanation. It’s not like Bruce owed him any. The fact that he wanted to didn’t mean he deserved to know anything.

And just like he predicted, the older man chose not to share the reason why he’s late and Tim let him.

“Star Wars? Really? If it’s supposed to persuade me into taking you on a space mission, I should inform you that this won’t work.” he looked amused now.

Well it was always worth a shot. “What? No, I forgot that I wanted to go there a long time ago” and wasn’t that the biggest lie of them all? “It was a ridiculous request anyway, we’ll see just in a minute why it’s a bad idea to go to space.” He snorted to make it sound more genuine. It was a stupid childish wish anyway.

Bruce’s eyes only softened “I promise you that when you turn eighteen and still be willing to, I’ll take you there.”

He wanted to do something like that only because Tim asked about it once when he was twelve. The fact that he even remembered meant a world to him. He felt so happy that his heart started to ache. _Shove it down, Tim, you’ve embarrassed yourself enough already_ , he thought to himself.

“Yea, sure, why not” he answered lamely and maybe just a little dazed.

Bruce’s smile grew as he made his way to the sofa, where a blanket had been already awaiting. He must have noticed Tim’s choice to sit alone, but didn’t comment on it.

When the older man was comfortably seated, Tim started the movie.

xxxxx

Tim woke up with a start when he felt something crash onto him. He started shoving at the added weight only for it to wrap something – arms? - around him. It could be this one alien he had seen just before he fell asleep. Come to think of it, he doesn’t remember ending the movie.

“You’re so docile when you’re asleep, Babybird. It’s so cute!” something screamed right next to his ear, completely awaking him in the process. He opened his eyes with a start and was met with Dick’s face right in front of his.

“Aaah! A monster!” he screamed and started struggling in the other boy’s arms.  
  
“Ha ha, very funny, you know I have feelings too, right? I can’t let this insult just go by unnoticed like that.” he proceeded to tickle the boy and Tim almost died out of laughter.

“Hahaha! I surrender! Sto- haha, I give up!” Finally Dick let go of him. The assault left Tim breathing heavily and clutching his middle protectively with one hand while wiping tears from his eyes with the other.

“It’s nice to see you, but what are you doing here today?” he asked after a while with a big smile on his face. Dick always made him happy and he wasn’t the only one, the first Boy Wonder had this effect on almost everyone.  
  
“What do you mean? Of course I came here for you!” he squeezed the younger boy again and Tim almost melted from the warmth of the other boy’s body. “Barbara had to tell me what had happened because someone else apparently forgot to” he sent a bitter look to the side and Tim followed it.

He was surprised to see Bruce on the sofa, holding his hands up in surrender with a classic “I’m innocent” expression. Right behind him stood Alfred, looking fondly at the two hugging boys.

“So, wanna describe to me what happened from your point of view?” Dick focused on him again.

Oops, time to change the subject, he looked back at Dick and frowned. “There was no need for you to go out of your way to come here” That was the only thing Tim could currently think about. He wasted another person’s time. Also two people didn’t fit nicely in one armchair, but the fact that he was uncomfortably squished was a less significant problem now.

The older boy saddened. “Of course there was! I had to come! You’re my little brother and I care about you!” Concern was practically tangible and seemed to be spilling from Dick’s words.

Tim fell silent. Great, another one with the same talk, as if words meant anything in the kind of world they live in.

Tim could repeat this as many times as he wanted, but it still didn’t kill the hope he felt at the older boy’s words. Anyone saying that to him would make him feel… something, he couldn’t really describe what. He wishes he could understand everything that’s happening with him.

Also the fact that this was the original Robin talking made his inner fanboy screech in joy. He shouldn’t let himself feel that, he knew, he should hold that back, contain it, resist it… but he couldn’t.

The fact that he was slowly loosing control terrified him. All those years of his mother’s teachings were going to go to waste only because of how pathetic and needy he was. He was absorbing attention like a sponge.

Maybe Bruce was right after all, he really should stay with him for good, so he wouldn’t burden his parents with himself anymore.

That’s not how Bruce put it, but he didn’t have to for Tim to know that. Even if there was a second he almost, just almost let himself believe that the man really cared about him… _He hugged me after all,_ he thought.

_Nonono, not going there, hope never turns out well for me._

Tim was shaken out of his thoughts when a hand squeezed his. He realized Dick must have been talking to him for a while now, based on the worried faces of all people present in the room.

“Sorry, I… got lost in my thoughts for a second,” gently, he pulled his hand away from the other boy’s hold “you were saying?”

“Right,” he started unconvinced as he looked at his empty palm “I asked if you felt like sharing anything with us, anything at all.”

“Really, anything?” Tim asked and Dick nodded in affirmative, his expression now uncharacteristically serious. “So... did you know that it’s forbidden to hug trees in China?”

His supposed to be funny joke apparently hadn’t been what the older boy wanted to hear, because he looked at Tim with clear disappointment in his eyes. Tim felt awful about it, but wasn’t going to give in. It’s just one more person on a list of people he hurt.

He wasn’t going to- no, he couldn’t share more information about his life, because that would extend the whole process of ‘healing him’ or whatever they called it behind his back. They already knew too much for Tim to be comfortable with anyway.

He just wanted for everything to come back to the way it used to be. Before that stupid video was released, before anybody knew anything at all. Now they felt obliged to help, because they’re heroes, it’s like a muscle memory for them. They’ll forget with time, Tim’s sure about that, he just has to wait out the biggest emotional moments without involving himself too much. Bruce, Dick, Alfred, they all needed to fell like they helped him so they could sleep peacefully at night. Then it will all come back to normal.

Without his parents, but relatively normal. Maybe even better, because there’s a chance he won’t be feeling so guilty anymore. He would still feel bad about failing them, but he wouldn’t be suffering from this pain of actively disappointing them every day. Even if it was well-deserved he still wanted to get away from it. Another evidence proving how weak he is.  
  
“It’s alright.” Dick continued. “You’ll tell us when you’re ready.”

The fact that suddenly they were so nice and caring didn’t help him with distancing himself.

Unexpectedly, Dick brightened out of the blue and, just by the look in his eyes, Tim knew he thought of some groundbreaking idea. Those often didn’t end well, so he tried to prepare himself mentally.

“Do you remember the first time we worked together as Nightwing and Robin?” the other boy was bouncing on the balls of his feet now.

“Of course I do, how could I forget? It was a pretty important moment for me” and that was putting it mildly. He doesn’t just remember what chronologically happened. He remembers every second of it, every sensation, his every thought. He kept reminding himself that night so often that this memory drilled it’s way into his mind and refused to ever be forgotten.

“Then I have an idea how to make your day better! Because you also must remember that...” he stalked closer, raising his hand and touched the younger boy’s chest. Tim looked down at it with confusion. “Tag, you’re it!” Dick shouted and abruptly ran out of the room.

Tim, bewildered, looked at Bruce, who seemed just as lost as him, but after a moment the older man exchanged a look with Alfred and said “I’d start chasing if I were you” then jumped over the couch and ran away as well.

That left the boy alone in the room with the butler. “And they say I’m the youngest one” he attempted to joke, but when he turned around he was met with Alfred’s back as the older man headed out the room hurriedly, leaving the tray he had been carrying on a nearby coffee table.

“This is ridiculous.” he murmured to himself as he went after the rest. He couldn’t stop the smile from making it’s way to his face though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter from Tim's perspective! I was kinda nervous about posting this, but I hope it turned out quite alright after all.
> 
> Thank you for reading and please comment, I'd love to hear your opinion! <3


	7. Chapter 7

As he made his way through the hall Tim wondered where the rest ran off to. If this was a normal play of tag, he would already be chasing someone, but because it took him so long to follow, the others had enough time to hide and he had one big manor to search.

He had to think strategically. Bruce probably chose the upper floor to put more distance between him and his chaser, at least that was what Tim would do. Alfred… he could be literally everywhere, the older man knew the Wayne Manor more than anybody, so he might have used secret passages to navigate through it. If he would chose to do so was another question, because that would seem almost too easy. 

That left Tim with Dick, who must be somewhere- oh, he knew exactly where he was. His smile sharpened as the current Robin made a sharp turn to the left, almost bumping into a sideboard with an expensive looking vase on it.

A feeling of dread came over Tim as he realized what could have happened and he had to stop for a while to calm down. The situation reminded him too much of his childhood, his house was always full of various artifacts his parents brought from their trips, that’s why he had to move around carefully. Any plays that involved a lot of moving were out of the question.

Nothing happened, the vase was untouched, he won’t be living in constant fear for several months waiting for his parents to come back and punish him for breaking something valuable. It was fine. He had a rare opportunity to play a game he wished he could as a child and he was about to waste it because of something this stupid.

He took a deep breath. He also didn’t want to spoil the fun and ruin others’ good mood, so he put on a smile and carried on with running towards the place he suspected Dick was. He really wanted to actually enjoy the game.

When he reached the front doors, without looking up not to alert his target, he jumped and bounced off the wall to reach this area’s chandelier. He grabbed it with his hands and swung forward until he was far enough to let go and land on top of it in a crouch. He was met with startled Dick and immediately reached out to touch him. The older boy made an aborted move to pull away but then must have realized there wasn’t a lot of space to back off without falling and gave up.

“How did you know I was here?” he asked incredulously.

“Are you kidding me? Everyone who knows you would look for you here, you’re almost too easy to read sometimes” Tim snickered.

Dick started mumbling something under his breath, probably complaining. “ Okay, I’ll give you 5sec head start, run.”

“No, you can’t catch me now, Bruce and Alfred are also playing.”

“What?! Seriously?” Dick stood up, making the chandelier swing in the process. Tim had to grab the ropes holding it to steady himself, while Dick had no problem standing straight, growing up on a trapeze and all. “Alfie never played Tag with me, he was always against running around the manor!” he pouted.

Now it was Tim’s turn to be confused. Why would the butler not only allow but also participate in this game, when he never did so with Dick, who was favorite? Did he really feel that sorry for him to go out of his way? This thought only saddened Tim, he never wanted people pitying him.

Dick, unaware of his internal dilemma, continued “No way I’m going to find any of them soon, Alfie is a freaking ninja when he wants to be! I can’t even remember all the times he appeared out of nowhere behind me, most of those times I was breaking some rules he set up and Bruce is… well Bruce.” Which weirdly explained everything.

“Then maybe you should at least get started already?” the younger boy suggested.

Dick brightened again. “That’s why you’re the smart one!” he patted Tim on the back and made a somersault to get off the chandelier. “Wish me luck!” he added as he made his way towards the stairs. Tim smiled to himself, Dick’s sole presence was comforting.

He decided not to look for another hiding place, if the next chaser was to be either Bruce or Alfred, they would never expect him to hide here.

xxxxx

It wasn’t even ten minutes later when Tim started to get bored.

He took out his phone to check for new messages. There were 3 more from Ives that he ignored. He’ll have to think of some excuse for Monday. Coming back to school tomorrow was going to be a literal nightmare, but hey, he sure lived through worse.

Scrolling down, Tim was surprised to find one from his dad. His heart started to beat faster and his hands became sweaty. He could be coming back home soon if that was what the older man wanted from him.

But the moment he opened it, all of his hopes were immediately crashed. It read ‘If anyone asks, it was a plan to draw media’s attention to our family that backfired on us. You agreed on it’.

Tim’s heart ached. That was all his father wanted to say to him after all that happened. No ‘I’m sorry’, no ‘please son, come back’. It hurt. It hurt. It _hurt_. He wanted to cry, hit something, scream until his throat was rough.

He did none of those things.

xxxxx

Two hours later Bruce made his way through the hall together with Alfred, they were searching for Tim and Dick to announce them that the game was over. Dinner was to be served soon and nothing had been prepared yet, so the butler had to hurry.

“I just realized something.”Alfred started. “I haven’t seen Master Timothy even once while we were playing” he sounded concerned.

Bruce stopped in his tracks. “Now that I think about it, me neither.” They shared a worried look.

“Tim!” Bruce shouted and waited for an answer that wasn’t coming.

He and Alfred walked hurriedly through all the places they could think of, that Tim could be hiding in. Bruce’s moves became less coordinated as he was getting more nervous with every passing minute without the boy being found, he repeatedly shouted the boy’s name in hope he would come out.

“Yo, what’s happening?” Dick came out of one of the rooms they just passed.

“When was the last time you’ve seen Tim?” Bruce asked without preamble.

The younger man’s face scrunched up in thought “He caught me at the very beginning, not since then. Why? Something happened?”

“Turns out we were having fun alone” Alfred answered. He would seem calm for someone who didn’t know him very well, but it was obvious for everyone present how worried he really was.

“What?! We have to look for him!” Dick shouted terrified.

Bruce all but rolled his eyes, “Yes, Dick, that’s what we were doing for-” he started, visibly annoyed, because it was easier for him to admit to being angry rather than scared.

“Master Bruce” Alfred scolded and that silenced him “I believe there are more important matters right now.”

They turned to carry on with their search only to be met with messy looking Tim, standing in the middle of the hall, looking uneasy and out of place playing with fabric of his long-sleeve T-shirt.

“Uh… hey, I heard you calling, are we done playing?” The boy’s hair was sticking out in all directions, his face was red and his clothes wrinkled. They stood for a while in silence, just looking at him, relieved but also wondering what could have happened to make him look like that.

Tim scratched his neck and looked at them all sheepishly “Sorry, I fell asleep an a chandelier.” Bruce sagged in relief, that explained why he wasn’t answering and also his disarrayed appearance.

Dick finally couldn’t stand it anymore and hugged the boy tightly. “You gave us a scare, Babybird!”

Bruce also walked up to them and put a hand on Tim’s arm. “Don’t do that again, chum. We were so worried” he’s voice gentle.

“That’s right, Master Tim. It’s uncanny for young boys to scare old men like myself. As well as sleeping in such a place when there are more than enough beds in the manor.” Alfred added after his hand found it’s place on Tim’s upper back.

“Yea, I’m really sorry guys, it’s just- I hadn’t realized how tired I really was and before I knew it, I was asleep” he still didn’t hug Dick back, but he wasn’t also pushing any of them away, so Bruce counted that as a win. He also noticed the boy was slightly nervous, it must be because he’s afraid they’re upset with him, like his parents probably would be.

“It’s fine, Tim, no one’s angry at you, we were just worried, that’s all.” The boy visibly relaxed after hearing that, so Bruce must’ve been right.

“And… there is one more thing” Tim said when they all let go of him. He took out something out of his back pocket and presented it to the others “my phone broke, I forgot I had it with me and it fell down when I was jumping off the chandelier. I should have been more careful, I’m sorry” he looked down. It was a common thing for Tim to do when he was troubled, Bruce noted.

Honestly he expected the boy to say something a lot worse, he already learned to expect the worst secret reveals when it came to him. Thankfully, this time it was nothing big. “No problem, what’s a phone for me, huh?” he flashed his Brucie Wayne smile™ and all men present in the room cringed.

“Stop doing that so suddenly! It’s creepy.” Dick groaned.

“I must agree with Master Dick on that one.”

“Even you, Brutus?” Bruce pretended he felt pain in his chest and gripped the place his heart was. He never said he wasn’t the one for being overdramatic. With Batman’s practiced entrances and all.

Tim’s laugh and an eye-roll from Dick proved that his efforts weren’t in vain.

“Excuse me, but dinner isn’t going to prepare itself” Alfred bowed and made a move to turn around before Dick’s voice stopped him. “Wait, we’ll help you!” he said excitedly.

The butler only rose a single eyebrow. Tim and Bruce looked sceptical as well, everyone knew about their misadventures with cooking.

“Come on! It’ll be fun, I promise! It’s a great bonding experience!” Dick insisted.

“Sorry, chum, I remember having been banned from kitchen for life.” Bruce said with false regret in his voice.

“I believe there is place for another exception today.” The butler said. “As long as Master Tim has no access to our coffee resources.”

“Party pooper” Tim mumbled under his breath, which was thankfully drown out by Dick’s loud cheering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, it's getting worse again, I wonder what Timmy has done in his time alone 
> 
> I have 2 questions for you guys!
> 
> 1\. Is there any nice synonymous for a chandelier? Because 'a lamp' doesn't sound satisfying to me
> 
> 2\. Could someone explain to me, how American school system works? I've already checked how old children are in which grades, but I've also seen in other fics that you can, like skip a year if you're smart. Is that true?
> 
> Thank you for reading and please comment anything at all, it's very encouraging! <3


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the comments explaining how American school system works, you've helped me out a lot! Honestly, I didn't expect to get this much feedback, I was grinning like crazy with every new comment I got :)

Cooking would never be his thing. Bruce was reminded of that yet again, when he crushed another egg in his bare hand. They were just too fragile for his rough, big, calloused hands.

He looked around to see if Alfred noticed. Thankfully, the older man was absorbed in something else right now, Bruce couldn’t even tell what it was that he was doing. Something involving an oven and that’s where his knowledge ended.

Then he looked to his left, where Dick was mixing dough using a mixer. Just when did the boy learn to do that? Bruce must have missed this particular revelation because of the ban that prevented him from putting his leg anywhere near the kitchen. He sighed ruefully, he really wanted to know everything about his grown up son, but lately they were only getting further away from each other.

Dick must have noticed him staring, because he looked up from his work and his eyes found Bruce’s. They shared a smile and Bruce, like a coward he is, instead of starting a talk, looked down and took another egg to crack it into a bowl.

Three wasted eggs later, he looked to his other side where Tim was stationed and was satisfied to find out he’s also having problems with his chore - peeling potatoes. Bruce took a minute to take a closer look at the boy. He still looked messy, but at least his face wasn’t red anymore. His eyebrows were furrowed and the tip of his tongue was sticking out through his teeth. 

It were moments like this when Bruce realized how young Tim actually was. He so rarely behaved like a fourteen year old boy he was supposed to be. In sudden surge of confidence, the older man moved to nudge him playfully. 

He didn’t expect the boy to flinch and look up at him in fear. There was something else in his expression as well, something… as if he meant to apologize?

“Sorry, did I surprise you? I just wanted to ask how your work is going” he whispered not to alert the rest that something was wrong.

Tim completely relaxed after that. This alone seemed quite odd, he changed his mood too fast, almost like he was scared of something else than the fact that he was caught off guard...

Tim smiled. “Yea, sorry I guess I focused too hard on those potatoes” they both looked down at the mess in front of the boy that didn’t even resemble any known to world vegetable anymore. 

“I hope at least you’re having more fun than me” now it was a turn to look at Bruce’s masterpiece of a disaster.

They shared a muffled laugh, that calmed Bruce’s running imagination. Maybe he was looking for things that weren’t there. Tim really could have been startled earlier, nothing more.

“What do you say we leave cooking for Dick and Alfred?” Bruce suggested and made a move with his head in the direction of the kitchen entrance.

“You mean you want to sneak out? From Alfred?” Tim looked at the older man incredulously.

“Not sneak out, all we have to do is show Alfred what we’ve done so far and he’ll kick us out” they shared a conspiratorial look.

Tim nodded, determined and they proceeded with Bruce’s plan.

xxxxx

Alfred wasn’t even angry, he just turned to Dick with a classic ‘I told you so’ look while the older boy was practically bend in half from all the laughter. That’s how, not even ten minutes later, after cleaning after themselves, the pair could be found sitting at the dinner table, not for the first time banished from the kitchen. 

They sat in friendly silence, both not knowing how to start a conversation.

Bruce realized recently how he never felt this relaxed around the boy. All the time they spent together and he didn’t let himself give Tim a chance to get close to him. He was too scared of getting attached to the boy, that’s why he focused only on the Robin persona and forgot about a real, living person underneath it. The only important information for him were what skills Tim could bring in for Robin. The boy barely existed for grieving Bruce.

He acknowledged how smart and remarkable he was, but only looked at those qualities in terms of what it meant for Robin.

But it was different now. He wanted to know everything regarding the boy, just like with Dick when he was younger. He’d take care of repairing their relationship as well, but one thing at a time.

“Do you have any hobbies, Tim?” As soon as this sentence left his mouth, Bruce internally cringed. Asking someone you met on daily basis for the last two years for their hobbies was just sad, but he needed to know. He was ready to correct his mistakes.

Tim seemed to be taken aback by the question, but answered regardless. “You’ve seen it already.”

Now it was Bruce’s turn to frown in confusion “What do you mean?”

“Like, those old cases I tried to solve.” Tim said uncertainly.

“Well- firstly, tried? You solved them and you did a great job of it” Bruce said incredulously. “Secondly, that’s work, and I wanted to find out what you do in your free time.”

“That’s” Tim started slowly as if he was explaining something to a little kid “what I do in my free time. Not at school, not as Robin. Free time.”

The pair kept looking at each other in silence. Bruce had a distant thought that If the level of confusion in this room was to be measured, it would fill a whole Olympic pool. Twice.

“I’d argue it’s not connected to Robin,” Bruce finally sighed ”I want to know something you like to do that’s completely unrelated to him.”

Tim remained quiet, his expression thoughtful.

“Really? There’s nothing else?” Bruce pushed.

“I mean, maybe photography? But if I was to be precise, I started from taking pictures of Batman and Robin, so it could still be called ‘Robin related’.” The boy said in all seriousness.

Bruce gave him a flat look “Turn off that big brain of yours sometimes, would you?”

“You know that’s impossible, besides, technically, I’m right.” Tim grinned cheekily.

Bruce sighed as if he was exhausted, but in reality he was fond of the boy’s shenanigans and they both knew it. “Can’t argue with that,” he murmured and then continued louder “so, photography?” He needed to get back on track, he had decided to get to know the boy better and was going to keep his word.

“Yea,” the boy looked to the side, clearly embarrassed. His cheeks were starting to turn slightly red “I do photos of those old crime scenes...” he glanced at Bruce and stopped at the look the older man gave him “-nature, Gotham scenery, my friends” he hurriedly added.

Bruce made sure to let the approval he felt show on his face as well. “I’d love to see them.”

Tim perked up at that and looked at the older man hopefully “Sure, I have them developed in my-” he stopped abruptly as his expression froze with mouth still open.

Right, of course they were at the Drake’s house. It was a wrong time to ask, Bruce should have known better by now. At least now that he found out about it, he would make sure that all of the boy’s belongings would find their way to the Wayne Manor. As well as some new cameras. Bruce also didn’t miss the boy’s choice of wording. “Developed?” he prompted.

Tim looked thankful the older man didn’t choose to dwell on the topic about his parents. “Yes, I converted one of the unused rooms in my house into a darkroom.”

“By yourself?” Bruce didn’t really have to ask, he could guess the answer to that question already.

“Yea, it took me a weekend or two. I had like, a bunch of free time before I came to you.” Time spent alone in a big empty house, the older man thought it was worth mentioning. 

“How old were you?”

“It was around the time I started following you, so I’d say nine.” Tim answered so casual as if it was the most common thing, a nine year old running around Gotham at nighttime to stalk his favorite heroes.

Sadly, it actually was. Batman kept catching kids following him around and exposing themselves to danger by trying to get closer to watch when he was fighting criminals. His first instinct had always been to adopt them, but then he kept reminding himself how Jason had ended because of him and resisted this urge. 

They were better off without him as a parent. He did, however, always give them some money and remembered their names so one of Wayne fundations could make sure the kid lived in good conditions, got some scholarship etc.

Tim was different from them, because he never let himself be seen. Bruce had spent many hours wondering how an untrained kid could be this smart and unnoticeable. Now he knew.

“Which room do you want?” he asked.

“What?” the boy apparently didn’t follow his train of thought. Or maybe he exactly knew what Bruce meant, but didn’t want to believe it, everything was possible.

“For darkroom, which room?” he continued.

Tim only looked at him as if he grew a pair of wings. Maybe it wasn’t a normal thing to give other people rooms, but Bruce had more than enough of them and if by doing so he could make the boy happy, then so be it. Tim should start getting used to receiving all kind of gifts, because the older man decided to shower him with presents from now on.

“You don’t have to do that” the boy finally answered in a small voice, looking at him shyly.

“I want to, Tim. For you, because your happiness is important to me.” he answered sternly. He wanted to show he won’t have any second thoughts, not about this.

His heart broke just a little yet again, when Tim clearly didn’t know how to react, as if it was the first act of kindness he experienced in his whole life.

Whatever answer Tim would give didn’t come, because he excused himself to go to the bathroom, hurriedly stood up and all but run out of the room. Bruce had no reason to not let him go, he didn’t want to be too persistent, maybe the boy needed to process it alone.

xxxxx

Tim splashed his face with cold water and gripped the sides of a sink to ground himself.

He was losing control over himself and it terrified him. Just a few days was ago he was able to lie through his teeth to the freaking Batman and now he couldn’t even survive one conversation without tearing up.

He didn’t want to admit how much the loose of his parents affected him, but everyone around him seemed to notice it anyway.

After taking several deep breaths, Tim looked up into a mirror and pulled at his long-sleeve to take it off. 

He traced the fresh teeth marks covering his left upper arm gently with his fingertips. 

He really shouldn’t have done that to himself, he was perfectly aware of that, but he also had no idea how he’d keep quiet earlier, on the chandelier, any other way. Biting into his own fresh to silence the screams bubbling in his throat… it can’t have been healthy. It also wasn’t the first time he did so and the marks always faded so it wasn’t really that big of a problem, right? It wasn’t permanent.

What his father sent him… it was too much, Tim almost lost it. He shattered his phone in the surge of anger. The fact that he won’t be able to see the message anymore made it slightly easier to bear, easier to believe that reading it earlier had been only a bad dream. 

He can’t let something like that happen again, he can’t let something like this affect him as much as it did. Why couldn’t he just come back to the way he used to be? When he had every single emotion shoved so deep inside, that he sometimes even forgot he was still able to feel anything. His parents hurtful words didn’t get to him as much then.

Just how angry would Bruce be if he knew about the wounds? Tim wondered. He was so sure the older man found out when they were in the kitchen earlier, he touched him exactly in the bitten place. Tim barely refrained from flinching at the time.

Thankfully, his secret was still safe...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please, keep commenting! I love to hear what you guys think <3
> 
> btw bitch+lasagna whoever you are, I want you to know that you've made my day and I love you deeply


	9. Chapter 9

Next few hours went smoothly.

Dinner has been spent in a nice atmosphere, Bruce didn’t mention anything more about the darkroom, which Tim was very thankful for. Another good thing was that he was able to talk with Dick a lot and that almost made him forget that anything was wrong at all, almost.

Regretfully, the other boy left soon after the meal, he had to come back to work at Monday after all and Bludhaven wasn’t that close to Gotham. Dick apologized to Tim many times and hugged him even more, which Tim complained about out loud, but internally really appreciated. The older boy also promised to call him every day.

When the acrobat disappeared, Bruce suggested watching tv together, to which Tim eagerly agreed. He didn’t remember much from Star Wars they watched that night, having fallen asleep pretty fast and, besides, he wanted to spend more time with the man.

xxxxx

They’ve been watching all kinds of shows for over an hour now, not really knowing what to talk about since Dick’s departure, when Tim remembered that he had school tomorrow and no homework done yet.

Just as he was about to excuse himself to go upstairs, he realized another thing. He didn’t have any of his schoolwork with him. His backpack, all books and notebooks were home. 

That certainly posed a problem. Someone would have to go fetch them, but he certainly didn’t want to go to his house so soon. Even if it was only for a second, just to grab his books and run. But Tim also didn’t think it would be a good idea for Bruce to meet his parents so soon again. Especially if his dad came back home already… that would end up badly.

Out of two bad options… 

“I think I’ll go take a nap now, if that’s okay” Tim looked at Bruce, who was on the couch, from where he was seated in his armchair.

“Sure, get some rest, chum.” Bruce answered, without taking his eyes off from the screen. Tim knew the men was just distracted by the documentary about bats of all animals, but being ignored like that still hit too close to home for Tim’s liking. Additionally, he felt a ping of guilt over disrupting the man. Deep inside some small voice have told him that Bruce didn’t mind, but it was a ridiculous thought. Of course he’d mind.

With a barely audible “Good night”, Tim made his way upstairs, wondering what would be the best way to sneak out. Bruce was easy enough to bypass, absorbed by the tv as he was, but Alfred? Tim had no idea where the older man was. Doing something very useful for the house, that’s for sure. It didn’t change the fact that he could be literally everywhere.

It made the whole operation more difficult, but not impossible, he wasn’t Robin for nothing after all. 

It was evening already so, since Bruce lived far from the actual city and no street lights reached his place, it was almost pitch-black outside, that’s why the first thing he did after getting to his temporary room was changing clothes. He had been spending enough time at the Wayne Manor to leave some of his things there for later use, so thankfully he had a few options to choose from. Two of those luckily happened to be a pair of black jeans and a hoodie in the same color.

Tim opened one of his room’s windows and looked around. His body didn’t like the sudden change of temperature, cold September air hitting his warm skin. He shouldn’t really be surprised, it was never warm in Gotham after all. 

He didn’t exactly know where to go from there, the boy never even imagined a situation where he would be sneaking out from here, so he didn’t have any contingency plans prepared. Good thing he wasn’t bad at improvising. 

Cold wind tossing his hair, Tim stepped out on a sheer roof, felt something wet and looked down at his socked feet. Oh, right. Shoes. Tim considered getting them for a while, but resigned. The only pair he had here was downstairs next to the front door. Getting them now would be too risky.

No big deal, he wouldn’t be gone long anyway. Just a quick run to Drake Manor and back.

The fact that he was on the third floor didn’t disrupt his plans in the slightest. The boy took a running start and jumped from the roof, catching himself on a branch of the nearest tree. His bare palms scratched over it’s bark, but Tim ignored the stinging and pulled himself up, until he was seated safely on a stable branch. The boy carefully made his way to the tree’s trunk and from there the way down has been more than easy.

Running straight to his house, Tim couldn’t help hut breath in cold air that surrounded him. He could already feel his throat starting to hurt. If he got hoarseness because of this little stunt, he always could just say it’s from crying alone in his room. Lame, but easily believable story. That’s probably how Bruce viewed him anyway, a damaged teenager that could break at the littlest push.

That’s not who he was. 

He was stronger that anyone would believe and he didn’t need a single person to help him. If they just gave him time to process everything alone, he’d manage without those shameful meltdowns.

Maybe he wasn’t what his parents or Bruce wanted him to be, but that’s not the end of the world. He’ll be disappointing people all his live wherever he goes and he has to learn to live with that.

By the time Tim stopped overthinking the whole situation, he was already on his home grounds. The boy had to slow down then and carefully get through the bushes surrounding Drake Manor without making much noise. Thankfully this time wind was on his side, causing leaves to rustle and drowning the sound Tim’s footsteps in the process.

In opposition to running away from Wayne Manor, Tim had experience in going in and out from his house unnoticed in the middle of the night. To be honest, he never really had to sneak out, he could have just be going out through the front door, no one was home anyway. But he liked to imagine there was and feel the thrill of secretly going out.

Besides, stalking Batman and Robin required a more exciting beginning of the night than a simple exit.

He took a closer look at his home and tried to guess where his parents could be. All of the lights on the ground floor were switched on, so it was impossible to pinpoint a specific room they were occupying, but at least the floor Tim’s bedroom was at seemed to be parents-free.

Using familiar path that consisted of two separate trees and one old drainpipe, Tim reached his bedroom’s window. It has been a lot easier then he remembered, probably because his limbs were longer than when he was 9, the age when the boy started using this route. 

After that Tim used a special trick to open his bedroom’s window. He designed this way of unlocking locks by himself when he was 8 and eager to go out on the streets, but still not prepared enough to do so. He closed the window, but didn’t turn on a lamp. Light would be too easy to notice if someone was making their way through the hall.

As silently as he could, Tim hopped on his bed and made a beeline for his backpack, that laid next to his desk. When he checked, not all of the books he needed were inside, so he had to look for the rest. Which… wasn’t an easy task if Tim were to be honest, his rooms has always been kind of a mess. 

Meanwhile, the boy kept an ear to the ground, listening for any noises from the inside of the Drake Manor, but thankfully there were none. His parents could be already sleeping or, more likely, they were at the two opposite ends of the house, not talking to each other after an argument Tim was the cause of.

It had taken him longer than he’d like to admit to find all of the books and notebooks he thought necessary and by the time he finished, Tim was already feeling anxious. Maybe he didn’t think it through as much as he thought he did. If, for some reason, Bruce or Alfred decided to check on him sleeping, they would live through quite a shock.

Just as Tim started struggling with zipping his backpack, he heard a loud crash coming from the ground floor. The boy’s head whipped to the room’s door and then he froze straining his ears, but couldn’t really hear anything over his loud beating heart. He let out a careful breath and very slowly and carefully lifted his schoolbag. He opened the window again and used the same route to go down.

When he was on the ground, the boy looked back at the mansion, hoping to find the source of noise from earlier, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. If something happened inside, he wouldn’t be able to see it anyway, so he turned around and started trotting back to the Wayne Manor.

The longer he stayed alone with his own thoughts, the more doubts started crossing his mind. Even if Tim knew he was capable of retrieving his schoolwork alone, maybe he should at least inform Bruce or Alfred about his plan? Or at least leave a note, he broke his phone after all, so there was no way for either of them to contact him.

On the other side, Bruce probably wouldn’t let him go if he knew, he wouldn’t think Tim’s capable of doing it. Even more likely, the older man would prefer to go in his stead. That would end very badly, both Bruce and Jack being temperamental as they were.

Tim did a good thing, he finally decided as Wayne Manor became visible on the horizon, he was protecting Bruce from Jack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the 9th chapter already and not even full two days have passed in this story, am I doing something wrong? 😓
> 
> Anyway, not much is happening in this chapter, but something big is about to come, can you tell?
> 
> Comment, pretty please! Love you guys 💓


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm happy to announce that I have 2 wonderful betas helping me out with this story from now on! ❤
> 
> Everyone please welcome Lilac_symphony(on Ao3) and tinn-tammm(on Tumblr)!! Thanks to them I can bring you better content 😊

_Earlier that night._

The documentary Bruce has been watching ended around 20 minutes after Tim’s departure. If asked, the man would be embarrassed to admit how entranced he was in it. It was really interesting to see how real bats behave, he might have even picked up some moves to add to his Batman persona. And for some unknown reason, he craved a banana afterwards… 

Bruce shook his head to chase away the weird thoughts and looked at the watch on his left wrist only to realize it was already past 10pm. That wasn’t good, he still had to talk to Tim, he especially needed to know if the boy wanted to go to school tomorrow, or any day that week for that matter. 

Knowing Tim, he wouldn’t give himself a chance to take a break, that’s why it was important for Bruce to remind him it’s okay to slow down sometimes. If that doesn’t work, as a last resort he could pose his arguments for Tim to stay low for some time as a more tactical move. Hiding wouldn’t equal showing weakness if the choice was made because of it’s outweighing advantages, right?

Bruce was pretty sure that even though technically no charges were put against Jack, press would still chase a cheap sensation and try to catch him to ask some questions at the most likely place Tim would be - school. He really didn’t want for the boy to have to listen to hurtful questions, those people don’t care about ethics or morals. They are straightforward, forceful and uncaring towards other people’s feelings.

Decision made; Bruce stood up from the couch. He hated to interrupt the boy’s rare time of rest, but the matter was important enough to make an exception.

As he made his way upstairs Bruce considered asking the boy about the adoption again, but quickly dismissed the idea. Even though it would be better to start the procedure sooner, he knew it would also put too much pressure on Tim. That’s why Bruce squished the Bat inside him, who insisted on dealing with it as soon as possible. The man had to learn how to take things slowly sometimes just as much as Tim.

Bruce stood in front of the boy’s door for a while, making up his mind. He knew he wasn’t the best at communication. The man never could be certainif he conveyed his thoughts properly. He needed Tim to understand everything exactly the way he meant it, that’s why it was important to have the right words prepared beforehand. Planning, that’s something he’s good at.

Finally, he knocked on the door and after receiving no answer, called Tim’s name. Still nothing, Tim must have been really tired to sleep this hard, there was also a chance he just didn’t want to talk with the older man, but Bruce decided not to dwell on that thought. He wondered if waking the boy up was really worth it, he could still talk with him in the morning after all. And no, he wasn’t running away from his responsibilities, thank you very much _Richard_. 

Rooted in place, Bruce felt a gust of wind on his socked feet. He looked down and realized it come from the gap under Tim room’s door. The breeze was really cold, if the boy left a window open before going to sleep, he could get sick pretty easily. If Bruce wasn’t going to talk to him, he could at least protect him from getting a cold.

Careful to be as quiet as possible, Bruce opened the door and stepped into the room, but before making his way to the window, the man noticed the empty bed. “Tim?” he called out and looked around.

No need to panic yet, Tim could have just gone to the toilet, Bruce thought as he trotted to the nearest bathroom hurriedly.

The doors to it was open, no one inside. That was fine, Bruce had only around 20 other toilets to check before panicking for real. Besides, why would the boy want to go anywhere so late at night? No one contacted him, that’s for sure, because his phone was broken and his computer was down in the cave.

“Master Bruce?” Alfred’s voice stopped him in his tracks “What would be a reason to be in such a hurry?”

“I can’t find Tim; I don’t know where he is.” Bruce tried to sound less panicked than he felt, but judging by the butler’s reaction, he was failing miserably. Alfred’s eyes filled with concern and the older man put a hand on Bruce’s arm.

“It’ll be alright, Master Bruce, just focus on the facts. Any clues as to where the boy would have wandered off to?” Alfred’s stoic behavior helped the man collect his thoughts. He recalled the last few minutes in search for information.

“There is an open window, that’s all” he answered with certainty. 

“There aren’t many places Master Tim could be seeking shelter this late on Sunday.” 

“Right. The only place close enough from here would be… oh no” realization dawned on Bruce. There weren’t many houses this far from Gotham’s center. Only a few of the richest families could own properties on those lands, one of them, unfortunately are the Drakes.

xxxxx

Many thoughts flooded Bruce’s mind as he ran to his destination. He was almost certain that Tim would be there, but what was he supposed to do if the boy was unwilling to come back with him? He couldn’t just drag him back by force. He’d reason with him, but with what words? And would Tim even listen? It could also be a situation where the boy was there against his own will. He’d prefer that turn of events, if Bruce were to be honest, it would be easier to deal with in many ways.

By the time the man reached Drake Manor, he had too many questions and not nearly enough answers. Bruce knocked at front doors anyway, there was no time to waste if Tim was in trouble. The only thing he had to focus on was stopping himself from attacking Jack the moment he saw him.

And saw him he did, no more than a few seconds later. Jack was dressed formally as if he just got home from work. At first, he looked surprised to see Bruce at his doors, but then hostility took over his expression and Jack all but sneered at him “Well, who do we have here? A child thief.”

“Not going to let me inside, Jack?” Bruce also didn’t try to hide his resentment for the other man. He was also aware of how far from his ‘Brucie Wayne’ persona he was behaving. All Gothamites knew him to be a carefree womanizer with no issues that money couldn’t take care of and Jack was no exception. Bruce worked really hard for people to see him as only that. Brucie wouldn’t fight for some random kid, so if he really wanted to prove to Jack just how serious he was, he had to discard this persona. 

“No more young boys for you to steal here, but sure, come in.” Jack remarked and opened the doors wider; which Bruce took as an invitation. They didn’t go deeper than a few steps and stayed in the corridor.

“So, what do I owe the” cough “pleasure, Brucie?” The other man must have felt the difference and used the nickname to taunt him. That didn’t surprise Bruce, Jack was viewed as smart by most people and known for his sharp tongue.

“I think you already know” Bruce answered like he would when interrogating a criminal. Which Jack undoubtedly was in his eyes.

“I sure have a lot of matters to discuss with you and vice versa, but Sunday evening, really? A man needs to rest sometimes, you know?” Jack was clearly mocking him. Bruce couldn’t see any signs of the man hiding anything though, just pure hostility. But the thing was, Tim must have learned how to lie so perfectly from someone after all, his mother was great at it, but his father could be even better.

The situation called for a change of tactics. Fine. Bruce could adapt. “Did you ask Tim to come here today?” He asked.

Bruce couldn’t just outright ask ‘Is Tim here?’, because then he’d be admitting the boy was missing. If it turned out that the boy wasn’t here after all, it would be a big disadvantage to have Jack know Tim was gone. A question like the one Bruce had asked was seemingly frank, but in reality, didn’t reveal enough information for the other party to be sure what it was really about. It had few meaning and answers.

The man only shrugged. “Why would I? I don’t have a reason to contact him anymore, I’ve already sent him a message with everything I needed from him.”

Bruce was taken aback enough by that to ask, “What message?” without thinking first and immediately regretted it, he was supposed to be far beyond those kinds of mistakes.

Jack took a moment to just stare at him and then laughed hard “You think Timothy likes you enough to play family with you, huh? Well, to me it looks like he doesn’t trust you at all” falling into another laughing fit, he added “Oh, that must hurt, poor Brucie.” 

As the man fought to compose himself, realization dawned on Bruce. Tim’s broken phone. In that case it was suspiciously convenient that something had happened to it. The boy knew what he was doing, he was getting rid of evidence. He wondered just how bad the information was for Tim to decide it was necessary to destroy it.

“It changes nothing.” Bruce finally answered. “He’s still better off with adults that care about his well-being, contrary to what you and Janet have been.” 

“If that was supposed to be a dig at me, it didn’t work.” Jack looked at him as if he were pitying him, but it wasn’t really effective because amusement was still gleaming in his eyes. 

“How can you care so little about your own son?” Bruce couldn’t help but ask, suddenly feeling drained of strength and defeated. The thought of Tim having to live his life with a man so cruel and a mother who… he really didn’t know much about. In fact, he was so focused on Jack that he had forgotten to ask the boy about Janet. She was ready to lie to protect Jack, or his image at least and had no problem with her husband treating their child badly, but other than that, nothing. He didn’t even know if she was at Drake Manor at the moment, she hasn’t shown up yet and they’ve been quite loud.

“I don’t have to explain myself, especially to someone like you.” Jack went from hostile to angry in less than a second. “And just so you know, whatever Timothy had told you about us was exaggerated, he’s always been an oversensitive little-” the man cut off at that, but it didn’t take a mind reader to know what the rest of the sentence was supposed to be.

“Oversensitive? You’ve just proven how little you know about him; Tim can put up with so much it’s terrifying.” Bruce said as if it was the most obvious thing ever, hoping to taunt Jack.

“What the hell are you trying to achieve?” Jack shrieked. “I’ve never wanted to get to know him, so I don’t!” A vain on his forehead seemed to grow twice its size. 

Bruce knew he was near a breaking point, it was frighteningly easy to anger the man, so he kept pushing, he had a newly formed plan and was going to go with it.

“You sure about that? It sounds a lot like an excuse to me and a pitiful one I may add.” Bruce snickered this time, enjoying the view of the other man’s red face.

Jack’s had his hands balled into fists by now. “It’s not like we wanted a kid in the first place, just an heir! That all he is to me!”

That was good, really good. Not in terms of Tim’s life, no, but it was great evidence for court and since Bruce had started recording this conversation a while ago, it was reasonable to say that, in the big picture, what Jack just admitted was a good thing.

“Running away from responsibilities like that… and you call yourself a man.” It was Bruce’s turn to give the other man a pitying look.

“That’s it! I’ve had enough!” Jack growled as he made a long step to get into Bruce’s personal space, close enough to throw a hit at him. And Bruce let him. He had more than enough time to block it, but he needed the fact that Jack had been the one to start the fight on the tape. The sound of him grunting in pain (overdramatically, he got hit harder than that on a nightly basis) would prove he was the one being attacked.

Bruce smiled. That’s all he needed, Jack throwing the first hit so he could be the one blamed for causing a fight if this went public. He straightened and gave Jack a wild look. He was going to enjoy that so much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think will happen next? I'd love to hear your theories! 
> 
> I appreciate any comments at all! ❤
> 
> Thanks again to my betas, they know what they're doing more than I do 🤗


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a quick reminder: Tim went out of the Drake Manor in ch. 9, sorry to dissapoint some of you guys, but he couldn't have been eavesdropping like people said in the comments 😔
> 
> My amazing beta: Lilac_symphony 💓

Sprinting from one estate to another was harder than people thought, especially when you had to do so three times in one night. Tim could now confidently say that doing so was _hell_ , but his mind wasn’t focusing on his thumping lungs and how they burned and his legs about to give out as he pushed them to sprint across these insanely large properties just to get to the house he had escaped from minutes prior.

Tim couldn’t even remember when he started running. As soon as he was close enough to the Wayne Manor to see the entrance, he was greeted by the sight of Alfred and an awful feeling of wrongfulness. Partly because he was caught, but mostly because he failed, and Bruce was nowhere in sight. The man could be too angry at him to even look him in the eyes, it wouldn’t be the first time, but it always hurt the same.

What the older man’s absence turned out to be caused by was a lot worse than Tim originally thought.

There is this blank part of his memories from the moment after he walked up to Alfred in shame only to hear the words ‘Bruce’ and ‘at your parents’ house’ that he never wanted to hear in one sentence. Next thing he knew, he was running. Backpack long lost, cheat heaving, breath stuttering.

Aware of his actions now, Tim’s mind focused one the fact that Bruce (good, warm, safe) was currently at Drake manor (cold, hollow, empty) and it was _wrong, h_ e shouldn’t be there, he didn’t belong in this awful place. On top of that he was most likely caught in a confrontation with his father, because Jack wouldn’t waste a perfect opportunity like that.

His father had no chance in winning with Batman, Tim knew, but Bruce wasn’t Batman at the moment and even though he had all the skills the other one possessed, without a mask he was just a man. He wasn’t a symbol; he was vulnerable like everybody else and could bleed and hurt.

Just as Tim felt his body reaching its limit, the Drake Manor came into view. Even from the distant Tim could see lights on in the house and moved towards the closest entrance that happened to be the front doors. As Tim got closer, he started hearing faint sounds of objects being broken and knew immediately that Bruce and his father were in fact fighting. It must have started when Tim heard the crash earlier. He was so stupid; he should have checked it out then. Everything what happened to Bruce tonight would be his fault, because he had a chance prevent the fight from escalating and wasted it.

By the time Tim had reached the nearest entrance he could hear screaming but was still unable to pick out any particular words. Struggling momentarily to open the door, Tim all but threw himself into the Manor before immediately moving towards the commotion somewhere deep inside the house.

He was so wrapped up in his growing panic that he hadn’t realized someone else was in the hallway until they had grabbed him and pulled him back a few steps. At first Tim fought widely, not caring who had stopped him in his desperation to get to Bruce, to save the man from his father’s rage. Then came the pain. Whoever was holding him, put their hands exactly in the place Tim bit into his own flesh just this morning. Finally, his brain seemed to realize that he probably should acknowledge the person holding him and stopped moving, hoping they would let him look back.

Tim didn’t even have time to take a peek before the person forcefully turned him to face them. When his eyes focused on the face inches before him, his breath got caught in lungs. Even though he was in immediate need of oxygen after running and then fighting, pain seemed to be far away while Tim looked in mother’s angry eyes. She was holding him still with both hands latching onto his upper arms, strong enough that Tim could feel long nails digging deep into his skin.

“ _You._ ” Janet all but seethed. “You shouldn’t have come here!”

Tim has never seen his mother so full of emotions. Janet “Only Perfection” Drake fumed with real anger. Her hair was slowly half undone, for her elaborate pinned up style falling in every direction. Her shirt was half untucked from her skirt and when Tim managed to look away, he noticed a suitcase standing next to her legs.

“You useless child.” Tim flinched causing Janet to just hold onto him tighter. “You’ve ruined everything. Couldn’t you just keep quiet?!” Tim tensed up and closed his eyes to prepare himself for the verbal assault. “Do you have any idea what you have done to this family?! You’re such an ungrateful brat! You’ll never repay us for what your stupidity has cost!”

This time when Tim flinched it was due to the loud crashing sound that came from behind him. He tried to turn and look down the hall to see the commotion, but his mother’s hand gripped Tim’s chin firmly, forcing him to face forward again as she continued to hiss out insult after insult. “Look at me when I’m talking to you, Timothy. I am your mother and you will show me the respect I deserve.”

Something in Tim clenched, causing an uneasy feeling to curl in the pit of his stomach. Bruce was probably right there, only few meters away, getting a beating from his father and Tim was standing here, being useless. How he wished he was brave enough to stand up against his mother, but there was nothing he could do, he wasn’t strong enough.

“Do you understand what you’ve done or are you too empty headed to realize what your selfishness has caused?” His mother’s words made his stomach tighten even more. She was right. His parents would suffer, because Tim was thinking only about himself. He chose Bruce, because living with him would be easier, but made his parents life worse in the process. He looked up towards his mother, locking eyes with her and watched the emotions swimming in her eyes, disgust, loathe, anger, resentment. All emotions that Tim has become accustomed to seeing in his mothers’ eyes. But there was a new emotion, settling deep behind the others but quickly pushing its way to the front…. _hatred_.

“Of all the idiotic attention seeking stunts…” Tim watched as his mother sucked in a deep breath between clenched teeth. Finally, her hand left his face alone, but not without long nails ranking down his chin, leaving marks on their way. “Drake industries suffers because of you; our reputation is forever tarnished. B _ecause. Of. You_.” Janet took a step back as if Tim’s presence repulses her, and perhaps it does. “You’re an useless heir, your entire purpose as our child is done. You’ve failed spectacularly, taking us down with you.”

And with that, the mask of Janet Drake was back. If Tim so much as blinked, he’d miss the change. He feared the angry version of his mother, he was unfamiliar with it, but the emotionless Janet he knew… this one he was terrified of. Despite her still messy appearance, she managed to seem like the most respectable person in the room with her look alone, especially when one knew what she was capable of.

Tim took deep breath. “May I go to Bruce now?” There was no point in defying his mother when she already made up her mind, the only choice he had was to accept her words. At least she seemed to be done with him, she could be even ashamed for letting herself show so much weakness, but there was no way of reading that expression from her face. All that was left after the outburst was a mask of a real human being.

“You’re no longer my responsibility, you may do whatever you want.” Janet answered and picked up her suitcase. She didn’t look back even once on her way out.

Tim’s mind, previously focused on Bruce alone, seemed to stop working altogether. He’s been completely abandoned. He’s never even considered a possibility like that. He was trying to prepare himself for months and months of court fights, Bruce seemed to think the same, but with the message he received from his father earlier and his mother words just now… It was for the better, wasn’t it? It would make things easier for him and Bruce, his parents wouldn’t fight for him, so he’d be placed with Bruce in no time… then why didn’t he feel good?

It was only when another noise of glass breaking cut the air that Tim realized that even though one fight ended before it even started, the other one was pretty much real and happening right behind him in one of the nearby rooms. He blinked for the first time since his mother left, feeling how dry his eyes became, and finally looked away from the closed doors.

He had to save Bruce. That was all the purpose of him being Robin, Batman needed Robin, but in the end all that Tim had brought to him was trouble. There were probably tons of teenagers who would fit that role better than him, but none of them would ever get a chance to even try. Tim never thought of being Batman’s partner, never dreamed of it. Only after what heppened to Jason... He’s taken over that role because there was literally no one else willing to do anything about Batman spiraling out of control.

He was a necessity, not a choice, he’d never get chosen.

He was going to protect Bruce, no matter the cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait and a short chapter, but I'm really invested in my other story (it's about kid!Tim being an anonymous detective and Bruce trying to find out his identity, please check it out if you're interested!)
> 
> The updates will be rarer until that other story is finished, sorry 💔😔
> 
> Comment! It's a great work motivator! 💓


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